Originally Posted by pannie
IF it's so wonderful, why do our Canadian friends come to the US for care? The wait for an out-patient c-t or mri is outrageous. And one couple's son and daughter-in-law are physicians! I love Canada and visit as much as I can. But for medical care, I'm very thankful I live in the US. I know Tony and his wife are fabulous, caring doctors (he's rehab and she's pediatric trauma) but as soon as the children are old enough, they want to emigrate to the states. Right now, they're pre-school and my friend is back-up babysitter.
It seems odd to me that physicians couldn't find a way to have the diagnostic tests they wanted, as my niece (a palliative MD) knows enough people, and has earned enough respect in her field, that what she wants for herself and her patients, she gets. As with our system, it's all about who you know, and clout.
If I were to guess, I'd venture that they bought health insurance for Canadians visiting the USA (which my sister does every year, to winter in Palm Springs at a cost of $2500 for 4 months!). Then they wanted to know the availability of CT scans and MRIs here - readily available, as each hospital and some radiology offices have their own.
In Canada, it's a matter of acuity that dictates how quickly things are done. My brother-in-law had both his knees replaced in Toronto while he was in his 60s (he's 80, now) - no problem having it done by the son of an orthopedic surgeon I knew from my nursing school days in Montreal. The father was a "die-hard" patient advocate, and woe to the nurse who didn't change his patients' sheets daily, without a crease, or left out something from his orders (which were exacting!).
The son was a different sort, we found. My brother-in-law Ed couldn't stand his roommate in the rehab hospital's moaning from pain, and noticed that the nurses never gave it in time or answered his call. (By the way, patients transfer to "rehab hospitals" for PT following those surgeries, so they actually do the prescribed exercises for a whole week, and equipment can be utilized by many, all the time. No private rooms exist there.) When a nurse responded to Ed's call, he asked her why she hadn't responded to his roommate's one. She responded nastily that the roommate hadn't said "please". ???&#%
Infuriated, Ed called the supervisor that evening, but she didn't respond, calling his doctor instead. The doctor (the son of the one in Montreal) arrived hastily and blasted Ed for "bothering HIS nurses with trivialities". When they told me about that over the 'phone, it was all I could do to resist the temptation to arrange for that doctor's loss of his license. The roommate was moved to a different room........
Different priorities.
Now to hazard a guess about the physicians you wrote about in Canada who want to emigrate to the USA. They may have wanted to look at the availability of work, the money they could make, etc. You haven't said if they actually needed the MRI and CT scan, I hope they did.
Most Canadians resort to care in the USA if they are not getting what they think they need as fast as they think they need it, in Canada - and have the funds to support coming here. Doctors there are quite willing to do tests our doctors here would put off, due to the cost and the possibility that their patients' insurance would balk at covering it, if it wasn't absolutely needed (or if a non medical insurance evaluator thought the patients' situation/age/prognosis didn't warrant the expense).
Many medicines that aren't available to us, are OTC in Canada (such as codeine for pain), so doctors' visits aren't their only option when they have a severe headache or sprained ankle. Fewer Canadians than Americans are addicted to codeine, and with rapid symptomatic relief available, they function sooner and lose less time at work or school. Preventive medical care and education lowers the morbidity and mortality rates there, especially for infants.
The educational system is far better in Canada (OK, I'm chauvanistic about it), and since students are examined at the end of each year on all the subject matter taught the whole year (not just one semester), there is greater retention of information taught. In the last year of high school, all the subjects taught for all 5 years could be on the final exam. American college students have a hard time at Canadian Universities, and usually go back to the USA to get their degrees.
I could go on, but you do get the drift........
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