I'm sick. I'm a 42 year old male, outside of some gastric issues, in good health. I haven't had the flu in well over 15 years.
I was feeling a bit feverish at work on Monday and had uncontrollable coughing so my boss told me to get the hell out of there. It hit me very fast. Now I've been sicker than a dog for the past three days with something that just pinned me to my bed like some quivering pile of human jelly burning up with a fever that soared on several occasions to 105.5 degrees.
I figured it was the flu and I'd just let it burn itself out. After a night of sleepless fits and dehydration (everything I drank just went right through me), my fever broke.
I thought it was over. It wasn't.
I'm sick. I'm a Canadian and I'm supposed to live in a country with universal health care.
I know this won't be a popular diary, but this isn't meant to be some Republican hit job. It's a real experience. It's anecdotal, but it's representative of why people who think a Public Option is a magic bullet need to think about it more carefully.
My experience follows:
My fever broke on the first morning. I got up, feeling better...I ate and since I was so fatigued I called off work. This is bad enough, since I work for a head hunting agency and have NO sick leave. If I miss work, I don't get paid. Period. Moreover, if I miss more than a week, my employer can ask to simply replace me with someone else who is less prone to sickness.
After about 8 hours, the fever returned and put me in bed once again. Skyrocketing again to 105. My girlfriend is a neuroscientist. She knows that prolonged temperatures like this on the brain can lead to some very serious neurological conditions. She rubbed my body with cold compresses all night. It had very little effect.
My lungs began to fill up with liquid and I was having labored breathing.
She prepared me to go to the Emergency Room.
But...here in Quebec, unless you cut your hand off with a power saw, you can't simply saunter into the Emergency Room. You. Will. Be. Turned. Away.
In a system designed right out of Parkinsons Law, you have to first call 811.
Then you have to listen to an automated list of symptoms. If you don't press enough of the right ones, you get the automated message (You are not sick enough for the Emergency Room, go to a clinic in the morning).
Probably ok since there is some abuse of the system. Anyway, we obviously clicked enough and we got sent to a nurse. She asked my girlfriend my symptoms. She asked if I had "black pools of blood under my armpits"...she answered "No." (Apparently I have to have the bubonic plague before I can go to the fucking emergency room)
She told us to see our "Family Doctor"
We don't have one. Nobody here has one unless you're a pregnant woman, a child, a handicapped person, or elderly. There are simply not enough doctors. Even their waiting lists are full.
She said, "but he's had a sustained temperature of over 105" for over 6 hours. She said I needed to go to a clinic in the morning when they opened at 8:30am. She told us where to go. I suffered without sleep until 8:00 am when we drove to the clinic. In Quebec they are called CLSC's and they WERE intended for people to walk in with just the kind of condition I had.
I get there. A woman is there, chewing gum. Talking on the phone. Pretending I'm not there. After 15 minutes, I interrupt her. Tell her I need to see a doctor...she tells me there was only 1 doctor and she's only seeing her own patients today.
Then she told me...GO OUT INTO THE HALLWAY AND CALL 811!
No shit. I was now stuck in the Quebec Health Care Black Hole.
Now, I had only two options...cut my arm off with a power saw or drive over to Ontario. Fortunately, I just live right on the border.
Ontario has these clinics where they promise you will see a doctor in 30 minutes or less...you do. But, he looks at you for about 3 and a half minutes...makes a diagnosis and sends you away with a prescription for antibiotics.
I was told I had Severe Bacterial Sinusitus which could lead very quickly to Meningitus if I did not immediately start taking a regime of antibiotics. Gave me a script...and aa form to be reimbursed by the Quebec Health Care system...but to be reimbursed you have to CALL 811! and have them verify that you were unable to get service in Quebec before you went over to Ontario. You have to start the bullshit all over again...and they have NO way of knowing how many doctors were available when you tried to get service.
I'm angry. I pay for this service. I get absolutely NOTHING for it. I was already angry, because I had been seeing a specialist for a stomach condition. She was good. I called her secretary to have my file transferred.
She asked me for the name of my Family Doctor. I told her I didn't have one. She told me I needed a referral from my Family Doctor then she would forward my file. Now I have lost treatment for an ongoing condition, just because I moved.
Let there be no doubt. Public Health Care in Quebec is RATIONED. If you are between the ages of 18-60. You are very likely not going to get access to any kind of services, including preventative medicine. My girlfriend who is from Saskatchawan said she has tried for 3 years to get someone to give her her annual pap smear and a breast exam with nothing but failure. She used the student clinic at the university until she got caught. The system is broken. It's underfunded. It doesn't have enough doctors and it doesn't treat people with dignity. Patients line the hallways of overcrowded hospitals in Montreal and Quebec City. An aging population is using up most of what resources are left.
If you think a Public Option is a magic bullet...you need to really think again.
Now I feel nauseous...so I probably won't be answering.