I am sick, pun pretty much intended, of this hall pass that Canadian health care gets now.

Yes we have free health care but no it is not perfect. It was good ten years ago but it’s gone sharply downhill. And FYI, your level of income in most cases won’t change things much.

I have a friend who lost a family member because a doctor couldn’t be bothered, or was too overworked or who knows. I know others who avoid their family doctor because they are flat out useless.

I don’t get free prescriptions and dental is still brutal (took second job in 2006 before costs really exploded just to pay for a tooth, something not everyone is able to accomplish) or else why was I not only paying 105 a month for health insurance but I had to drop that when it flew up to 139?
No doctor in Victoria has accepted new clients for about a decade now, walk ins have a line up out the door first thing in the morning and a trip to emergency can only be chanced if you’re able to blow 6 hours!!

What set me off? Calling for my girlfriend first thing in the morning do I get reception? No! I get a message that a) should have called before they were open and left a message for same day so she’ll be in pain all day. And b) the machine answers the rest of the day as they want to screen calls.

Oh added bonus!! She missed two appointments (no mention) and because of that, up all night with pain, she can’t make an appointment! Seriously!

According to my family doctor physicals are now a thing of the past. If you have a problem they’ll look into it. Scary this because many patients wont know, or won’t want to waste the doctor’s time or are embarrassed. Next thing they know something sneaks up on them. My friend was diabetic and she only found out when it was so bad that a walk in clinic doctor said “she shouldn’t even be walking”. This person had a support worker and a family doctor.

There are others who lost medication coverage under disability as their financial situation changed, creating fallout which ruined there lives and said income. The cancellation of disability due to this or living/marital status is disgusting as I can’t imagine few make the transition easily. This is a world I have lived in and I can more than promise you it’s real.

Don’t even get me started on people paid as home care support workers, some of which have never actually seen inside a client’s home. Some almost never see their client, take them to a food bank (we have those, Victoria has at least 3 so not so opulent then…) once a month and then act like they see their client full time.

One story I have heard from digging is their lack of funding. You have only a few remaining with an increased population (especially of the aging population) and so they are consistently short staffed.

And with all of this one thing stands tall, and thats they know your choices are next to nonexistent. This stuff is just cruel, in some cases it is FATAL.

Now, I am not against America getting free health care, and maybe this is specific to Victoria BC, but to point to us as some kind of health Nirvana is making me crazy.

You guys south do need health care as a human right.

And so do we.

Cheers,

Tom

Thank you for reading! Please follow me and feel free to surf around my blog! 🌅

P.s. I’m not overreacting when I write this, I’m pulling back and there’s more horrid details I actually can’t remember.

Pps. Sorry my posts have been aggressive lately. Due to our own difficult situation I have had to throw myself harder at other work. Not easy all round. 😕. Hope everyone has a great day and hopefully one day we can make the people and world around us our priority.

🙂