The Trouble With Healthcare

I grew up in Ontario, Canada though I was born in Port Huron, Michigan.  And though we had to wait hours to see the family doctor, and there was no prescription drug coverage, my parents never paid for my doctor visits or hospital care when I crushed my shoulder in a biking accident.  Not one dollar was charged to them and it was a major surgery.  So I didn’t have to wait until the bones had settled in a deformed way they had me show up at the emergency room the one morning in the month the shoulder surgeon had to make rounds in the ER.  He saw me on a consultation and whisked me off to surgery.  Otherwise I would have looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame for the rest of my life.  Obviously it is a flawed system but my poor parents and I received no bill for world class care.  Fast forward to today.  My poor wife was in an auto accident and broke her foot.  It’s $60 every time we breath the save air as the doctor.  Then she needs two surgeries.  One will be next week (So I might not blog) on Tuesday and one a few months down the road.  So I have to pay one large deductible before insurance kicks in for part this year and then it resets in January so I pay it all again next year.  It’s ridiculous.  How are ordinary families supposed to pay for accidents?  Then there will be physical therapy.  My poor wife.  But this system doesn’t work.  The Canadian one isn’t perfect either as years ago my father waited in intensive care for 4 MONTHS for a triple bypass in a Canadian hospital and nearly died on their waiting list.  Only by breaking the rules and letting a resident do the surgery did he pull through.  That’s not the answer either.  But there must be something in between.  Imagine having no insurance!  Something’s better than nothing but being in debt forever with insurance is no answer either.  This is not my problem to solve.  I’m just going to concentrate on my wife and her health.