Dear Fellow Parkinson's patients...

I usually try to stay out of political preferences, but this one is near and dear to my heart. The difference (I hope!) is that when I say something, I am open to differing opinions. This probably should be held through a PM instead of on this site, so I'll leave that one up to the moderators. (That's why they're paid the big bucks ... LOL)

First off, I truly believe that someone needs to PERSONALLY experience a situation before deciding if that system is better. This is no exception. If Canada's healthcare system is so much better than ours, the person touting such should be required (perhaps too strong of a word) to LIVE that system, first ... and I mean more than a day!

As most of you know, I am an American and was born here in the USA. Because my husband works for an oil company, our family was sent to Europe for nearly six years. Therefore, although I don't know the Canadian health care system, I do feel qualified to comment on at least one country's socialist health care system. (I prefer not to name the country, as to unduly pit that country, and the beautiful people, against the U.S.A. because of my simple observations and opinions).

The accounts that I name are first-hand, not something that I either read or didn't experience:

#1 - yes, everyone is entitled to health care in a socialist country but it comes with a price:

- Our babysitter needed knee surgery. She was 13 years old when we moved there and 19 when we left. She is now in Florida attending an American university.

- She had to wait FIVE years to have corrective knee surgery because the infirm, the truly desperate, and the children are given priority. Try telling THAT to an athlete.

- Our next door neighbor's son had a lump in his groin. It was dx as a hernia and surgery was set. Before the day of surgery, however, John now had a lump in his swollen glands. Back to the doctor they go. He was now dx as having cancer. They were going to biobsy the lump, send it off for the results, but insisted that they start John on chemo immediately, before the results of the biopsy. Joan (mom) came over in tears, truly believing said diagnosis, never questioning for a moment that they were wrong. Only at the last moment did they decide to take John back to the U.S. to be treated, simply because of the language barrier. Low and behold, had the doctors started John on penicillin immediately, he would have been fine.

Our family had a bout with Scarlet Fever. Our youngest at the time was only 9 months old when we moved there. I was forewarned ahead of time to bring penicillin. My daughter had a rash in the groin area, I had a rash under my arm, and two of our sons had a rash as well (for the life of me, I can no longer remember where). Off to the doctor I go with the youngest.

Because this was our baby, I started penicillin on him immediately. I did not take any myself.

At the time, I didn't know this, but scarlet fever is always accompanied by strep throat. As such, when the doctor was going to perform a strep test on our youngest, I fessed up and said that his results would be negative because I had already started him on penicillin. The doctor was not too pleased, but I tried to smooth things over by saying ... "I'm an American ... I'm sorry ... we do things like that." I did convince him to do a strep test on me which came back positive.

The doctor then gave ME penicillin but refused to even consider that I had two more children at home with it, let alone our youngest.

All I can say is thank goodness we had a stash of penicillin on hand.

- A friend's 12 year old daughter was sick and EXCESSIVELY thirsty. Off to the doctor they go. They send both child and mother home, telling them that it's a virus. (Again, I was forewarned that "everything" is a virus). A few days later, the daughter had to be carried into the doctor's office by the mom. I am not a medical doctor, by any stretch, but I do read Reader's Digest and other family magazines. HELLO!!! Excessively thirsty!!! And, yes, the daughter was minutes away from being in a diabetic coma. They took one look at her, and said to my friend ... "Don't you know that she has diabetes and is minutes away from a coma ... take her immediately to the hospital." Knowing that she was so flustered, that she couldn't think, let alone drive to the hospital, she was rushed to the hospital by ambulance.

- A family was involved in a huge, major traffic accident. One mom and one child died instantly. The other mom was rushed to the hospital where she eventually died. A second child was examined at the scene and not having anything apparently wrong, was sent home. She was eventually rushed to the hospital for internal bleeding and died at the hospital. But that's not even the end of the story ...

One year later, I saw the father at the baseball fields and talked to him. The trial was coming up for the accident. In tears, he told me that he found out (in the NEWSPAPER) that the driver was not being indicted for the murder of his wife because they had determined that it was the HOSPITAL that had killed her by putting the intubation tube in incorrectly). To say that his life was a living hell would be an understatement.

A good (American) friend was in my weekly Bible Study. I knew her for FIVE years! She was having such horrible dermatologist problems with her hand that simply was not being helped by doctors. Unlike me, she didn't have the funds to fly to the U.S. for treatment, although that was her dreams and desire.

- I took our oldest son to the ORTHO. His teeth truly were in bad shape. He has congenital defects inherited from yours truly. He had a "stub" of a tooth instead of a whole tooth, was totally missing one tooth, and had a baby tooth with no adult tooth to replace it. They took one look at him, kept looking at him, and then told me that they needed to transplant teeth but it could not be done until he was 18 years old and considered an adult.

Needless to say, we took him for a second opinion to an ortho in the U.S. He took one look at him; said ... "we fill this in, we move that, (voila!) a normal day's work!"

Lastly, and this may come home to roost. Because we are discussing socialist medicine, I simply cannot ... in good conscious ... stop at just the medical implications of socialism.

- My husband worked with an employee whose property was next door to a farmer. The farmer was getting older, didn't want to farm that many acres, and offered to sell part of his farm to his neighbor. Guess what? The government declared that the employee's property was large enough and stopped the sale. (Remember, everyone is "equal" in a socialist system).

- The government can (and does) prevent college students from entering a said discipline ... "say teaching" ... if THEY feel that the field is already saturated.

- Enrollment in universities is shrinking, not only because of the above, but because it doesn't matter if you get an education ... "the government will take care of you!"

- We could not find ONE decent mechanic shop to take our car to be serviced. (And, yes, we tried several). The reason ... there is absolutely no incentive to be the "best" mechanic. Everyone, again, is "equal".

- Government rules were being changed all the time. One day "vitamin fortified" products were taken off of the market. This is only a guess on my part ... but I do believe it was their way to control the importation of American products. Not that I blame them, but it is disconcerting that a government can (and does) make decisions so profound. I have numerous other examples, but won't bore you with the details.

Lastly ... and this is the most important ... if anyone has differing opinions, why, oh why, do they not move to that country? No one is keeping anyone here and everyone is more than welcome to live elsewhere.

My husband has ten years of college and, yes, he makes a lot of money. I only have a two year degree (60 credit hours) but it allows me to substitute teach. In the land of opportunity, the sky is the limit. You CAN better yourself, if you want. That is a personal decision. I don't see people lining the Canadian border to get in but we all know that millions are trying to move here.

Do we have a perfect country or a perfect healthcare system? By no stretch. Do I know people who have personally been screwed by the system? Yes. We all do. But, please, please, please don't bash the system unless you are truly willing to live in the other one.

Lastly, as for Michael Moore ... (my opinion, folks ... not anyone else's) ... why does he continue to live in the United States if he hates it so much? Is he willing to give up his "millions" and "be equal" like everyone else? NO ... he wants both ... a uniform health care system, but a system that also allows him to be rich.

Moderators ... I have no idea what is allowed, and what is banned on this website. If this is not allowed, so be it. Is a better way for it to be accessed by a link of some sort? I have no idea how to do that, however.

Again, I am always open to comments and I try not to take things personally. If anyone wishes to respond, please respect my opinion and I'll be sure to respect yours.