UFC champ Brock Lesnar slams Canadian health care

[Matty]

For all those who have been following the Brock Lesnar (WWE/UFC) situation with his rapid health decline, comes this very telling read about his "near-death" run-in with the Canadian health care system. I have to say this article totally hit home for me, and sings the same sort of tune for why I cross the border for health care as well...:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100120/sports/mma_ufc_lesnar_comeback

Also ties it into US health care reform:

"The only reason I'm mentioning this is I'm mentioning this to the United States of America because President Obama is pushing this health-care reform. And obviously I don't want it. I'm a conservative Republican . . . I'm speaking on behalf of Americans, I'm speaking on behalf of our doctors in the United States that don't want this to happen and neither do I."

Sing it brother!

[chipdouglas]

For all those who have been following the Brock Lesnar (WWE/UFC) situation with his rapid health decline, comes this very telling read about his "near-death" run-in with the Canadian health care system. I have to say this article totally hit home for me, and sings the same sort of tune for why I cross the border for health care as well...:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100120/sports/mma_ufc_lesnar_comeback

Also ties it into US health care reform:

"The only reason I'm mentioning this is I'm mentioning this to the United States of America because President Obama is pushing this health-care reform. And obviously I don't want it. I'm a conservative Republican . . . I'm speaking on behalf of Americans, I'm speaking on behalf of our doctors in the United States that don't want this to happen and neither do I."

Sing it brother!

I'll slam the Canadian health care too. I'm getting progressively into health care myself, and trust me, as soon as I graduate, I'll be looking for a private clinic. There's no way I'm sticking with public health care--it really really sucks to no end. Patients in need for life saving surgeries wind up on never ending waiting lists. Same goes for those awaiting proper testing. It's unacceptable, period.

[legbuh]

I hope Brock can come back...

[bigpappab]

I watched the video earlier today. He will be fighting this summer...YEAH!!!

[Bulldog]

:hurray:

I'm glad to hear that he is getting healthy again. I was worried I might have to listen to Frank Mir run his mouth about how Brock was afraid to fight him again or some stupid crap like that.

[seekonk]

My brother is Canadian and loves it. His in-laws have had all kinds of serious health problems and major surgeries lately and have been treated like kings. I wish I had access to all that...

[Shootist]

My brother is Canadian and loves it. His in-laws have had all kinds of serious health problems and major surgeries lately and have been treated like kings. I wish I had access to all that...

Funny, I think that's the first positive comment I've seen from a Canadian about their health care.....and it was hearsay.

[gman]

I have heard the same comments from my wife's relatives...they love it.

[Matty]

They must not be dealing with the endocrine system then.

Seriously it's hit or miss and more often miss. If you got a clear cut issue or common cold, and you manage to move up the priority list somehow, there's no doubt you'd have stunning reviews of the system. If you're dealing with something the least bit "out of the box", you're in a world of hurt.

A lot of pill pushers in Canada.

[gman]

we have the same shit here. My client's family doctor and the neurologist both said he needed an MRI but the insurance company said no, so now he had to do a written appeal. This was an emergency situation where he had numbness on the left side of his face. We deal with different bureaucrats here, but still bureaucrats.

[seekonk]

we have the same shit here. My client's family doctor and the neurologist both said he needed an MRI but the insurance company said no, so now he had to do a written appeal. This was an emergency situation where he had numbness on the left side of his face. We deal with different bureaucrats here, but still bureaucrats.

I agree, it is still rationing, done here by private sector bureaucrats instead of government bureaucrats. At least the latter won't lose their jobs if they don't meet their denial quotas. The former will. I know who I'd rather take my chances with...

By the way, you can still pay out of pocket (or use some kind of private insurance) to go outside the box even in Canada. Most of us here in the U.S. have to do this anyway to see an expert like Dr. J, for example. They still have the same choice there. It is not as if private doctors are outlawed. They have them and can use them.

But they can rest assured that if they need spinal surgery and months of rehabilitation in a live-in facility, or need to be hospitalized for a week with pneumonia in a clean room, it will be covered and won't cost a cent (as happened to my brother and law and his aunt, respectively, this past year). This is true whether they may have lost their job or not.

I'm not saying the Canadian system is perfect, but we don't have that kind of peace of mind here.

[Matty]

By the way, you can still pay out of pocket (or use some kind of private insurance) to go outside the box even in Canada. Most of us here in the U.S. have to do this anyway to see an expert like Dr. J, for example. They still have the same choice there. It is not as if private doctors are outlawed. They have them and can use them.

We do???

You can???

I must not be living in Canada, hahaha...

No seriously, there aren't many seekonk. There really aren't. If there were good ones kicking around, Lesnar would have called one up - LOL. The momvement may br growing, but we aren't anywhere close to the States (quanitity or quality) in this regard. And even then I think private practices here need to follow much stricter guidelines than in the US.

[seekonk]

We do???

You can???

I must not be living in Canada, hahaha...

No seriously, there aren't many seekonk. There really aren't. If there were good ones kicking around, Lesnar would have called one up - LOL. The momvement may br growing, but we aren't anywhere close to the States (quanitity or quality) in this regard. And even then I think private practices here need to follow much stricter guidelines than in the US.

My brother in Toronto had surgery for gynecomastia last year with a private practitioner there. I know they have one of the top hair replacement surgeons in North America there because I looked into it. I recently went to see probably the top spine expert in the world at the University of Waterloo close to Toronto. Professional sportsmen travel from across the world to see him.

All of this private.

It seems Toronto is great for doctors. Maybe outside Toronto you might not be so lucky.

As for good ones kicking around, remember that most of us here in the U.S. have enormous difficulty finding good HRT or anti-aging specialists here. This should be obvious from a casual reading of these forums. I had to cross half the continent to Michigan to find one...

There is nothing wrong with debating these things, when the debate is based on facts. But here in the U.S. there is an incredible amount of misinformation about Canada. Horror stories happen everywhere, perhaps most of all in the U.S., but there is no discussion here where somebody won't bring up one that happened in Canada as if that is the way things work there...

Funny how, if things are so bad, Canadians manage to live longer in better health and have lower infant mortality, etc. etc. etc...

[bgnb]

The 'real' problems with health care:

1. bureaucracy ... more money is now spent pushing paper than
actual health care. Nurses do more paperwork than patient care,
that paperwork goes to administration. To do what exactly?

Every visit to emergency (here locally) incites over $1,000 in
administrative work!

2. doctors ... until medical schools stop telling doctors they are
higher than God, you will find arrogance and ignorance before you
find much assistance. How many docs continue to have mistaken
and/or out-dated beliefs about the most simple of treatments?

It doesn't matter which system we have, public, private or both,
the fact that its more about preserving an archaic system than
providing care won't make anything work properly.

[Bulldog]

My 10 year old son's doctor charged my insurance $87 a couple of months ago when he went in for the flu. They only allowed him to charge $72. The doctor spent less than 5 minutes with us. Even at $72 for a 5 min. visit that works out to $864 per hour. I don't care what you went through or paid for school/training, that is ridiculous!

[legbuh]

And the funny thing is, Bulldog, you probably knew everything your doc told you and you just wanted an Rx or something.

[yardbird]

This guy is an idiot. His final paragraph proves he has an agenda. He went to a small rural clinic in Manitoba and then went to the Mayo Clinic. If he had gone to a rural clinic in his home state of South Dakota, he would have had the same problem. I highly doubt any functioning hospital in say Calgary or Edmonton would have trouble diagnosing a case of diverticulitis.

[legbuh]

Read it again, yardbird. He went to Bismark, Nd. Not exactly a booming metropolis (my home state). He went to Rochester later when he was healing.

And if any doc can't find diverticulitis, somethings wrong. anyone else in that situation would have died because they would have stayed there and trusted the docs.

[Shootist]

My 70 year old dad got real sick the other day and my mom took him to the emergency room. Now Baton Rouge is not a hot bed of medical expertise but the ER doctor had his diverticulitis/osis diagnosed in about 5 minutes.

[matttaylor]

My 10 year old son's doctor charged my insurance $87 a couple of months ago when he went in for the flu. They only allowed him to charge $72. The doctor spent less than 5 minutes with us. Even at $72 for a 5 min. visit that works out to $864 per hour. I don't care what you went through or paid for school/training, that is ridiculous!
thats a bargain price, dont complain.
Call a plumber, they have a higher minumum price then that

[hebsie]

...from the Globe & Mail (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/brandon-smacks-back-at-ufc-star-brock-lesnar/article1439825/)


Brandon smacks back at UFC star Brock Lesnar
Patrick White

Winnipeg — Globe and Mail Update Published on Friday, Jan. 22, 2010 2:12AM EST Last updated on Friday, Jan. 22, 2010 2:23AM EST

She may give up several inches and a few pounds to UFC star Brock Lesnar, but the CEO of Brandon's regional health authority is taking on the martial-arts brute and his bruising views on Canadian health-care system.

“I take real exception to being referred to as a third-world country operation,” said Carmel Olson, responding Thursday to comments from Mr. Lesnar, the venom-spewing, bone-breaking heavyweight champion of the UFC.

On Wednesday, Mr. Lesnar marked his return to the octagon after a lengthy digestive ailment by slamming the medical treatment he received while visiting Brandon, Man. “It was like a Third World country,” he said of Brandon Regional Hospital. “My wife saved me. She got me out of there and drove 100 miles per hour to get me down to Bismarck, N.D.”

He was reportedly visiting Manitoba to hunt with his brother, who lives in the area. But when his painful diverticulitis flared up, he drove three hours to check into Brandon's hospital, a modern facility that serves much of western Manitoba and south-eastern Saskatchewan. But he quickly found that it wasn't up to his standard. “They had some machinery that wasn't working and couldn't do its job,” he said. “I needed to have [tests] done, so we went where they could be done.”

But Ms. Olson disputes the 6-foot-3 former wrestling star's version of events.

“ We have state-of-art equipment here. We are hardly a one-horse operation. ”— Carmel Olson, Brandon regional health authority CEO

“The attending physician was very qualified and very respected,” she said. “He's been in the business for more than 30 years. And he has the skills to diagnose a condition such as diverticulitis without a CT scan.”

She added that the Brandon facility deals with diverticulitis on a regular basis and that Mr. Lesnar was never misdiagnosed.

“We have checked this particular health record and were are quite confident that the correct diagnosis was given and the best course of treatment offered,” she said. “We have state-of-art equipment here. We are hardly a one-horse operation.”

She was flummoxed as to why the Mr. Lesnar took such exception to Brandon.

“Who knows, maybe he didn't like the bill.”

Towards the end of his press conference, Mr. Lesnar admitted that his comments were partly motivated by the ongoing political debate in the U.S. “The reason I'm saying that is because there's millions of people that don't want health care reform and I'm one of them,” he said. “I'm not a believer in socialism and I don't want that going on.”

After visiting Bismarck, he was transferred to the famed Mayo Clinic, a facility he said was superior to Brandon's hospital, an assertion that doesn't surprise Ms. Olson.

“I wouldn't be so arrogant as to compare ourselves to the Mayo Clinic, they're the experts,” said Ms. Olson. “But I really take exception to someone giving us that kind of media coverage for their own political reasons.”

[powder925]

I have never had any negative experiences with the health care in Canada.....sometimes the wait in the ER can be long if you are not critically ill...just last weekend I had to take my daughter to the ER in Winnipeg cause she banged her head on the cement....they took us in right away and gave her a CT scan to make sure all was good and we were out of there in under 2 hrs.......I will say that one of the biggest issues in Canada's ERs is that the waiting rooms are full of people who have no business being in the ER.....because heath care is free here..you got people filling the ER waiting rooms for stupid reasons like a sore throat or whatever minor issue.Its nice to know that if me or any of my family members ever need long term care or any surgery...that we will be covered 100%

[seekonk]

I have never had any negative experiences with the health care in Canada.....sometimes the wait in the ER can be long if you are not critically ill...

My friend was in the ER in Boston recently for critically elevated blood pressure. They made her wait 6 hours...

[cpeil2]

My brother in Toronto had surgery for gynecomastia last year with a private practitioner there. I know they have one of the top hair replacement surgeons in North America there because I looked into it. I recently went to see probably the top spine expert in the world at the University of Waterloo close to Toronto. Professional sportsmen travel from across the world to see him.

All of this private.




One of the best gender reassignment surgeons in North America practices privately in Montreal.

[cpeil2]

My 70 year old dad got real sick the other day and my mom took him to the emergency room. Now Baton Rouge is not a hot bed of medical expertise but the ER doctor had his diverticulitis/osis diagnosed in about 5 minutes.

It is, after all, an extremely common old guy's disease.