Renfrew Nipissing Pembroke NDP
Media Release for December 15.
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RENFREW: Creeping Americanization of health care in Canada, encouraged by Liberals and Conservatives, could have a severe impact on the lives of ordinary people in Renfrew County, warns Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke NDP candidate Sue McSheffrey.
McSheffrey met in her Renfrew home Thursday night in her own home with campaign worker Kathy Eisner a Golden Lake teacher whose sister Peggy died of cancer in the United States this year after suffering "horrific" experiences with the American health care system.
"Most Canadians are not aware of how bad it is in the States," said McSheffrey. "In America, the insurance companies' bottom line is all that matters in health care. It drives everything from diagnostics to treatment to palliative care, and at every point, the companies squeeze patients and doctors in ways that would be incomprehensible to most Canadians."
McSheffrey says that the Liberals have weakened Canada's public health system to the point where Americanization is a short step away. "And as that happens, as the private clinics and insurance expand here, Canadian families will begin to experience the kind of heartache and cruelty that Kathy Eisner's sister and family experienced."
Ms. Eisner said she was "appalled" at every aspect of the treatment of her sister, who lived in northern California and who died a year ago of colon cancer.
Important things that Canadians take for granted were non-existent despite her sister's having had insurance. "The different doctors are all private operators and they don't communicate. Peggy was left to try to work as go-between with different doctors."
Although the Canadian system is criticized for wait times, Peggy, in northern California, experienced lengthy waits for consultations, referrals, appointments, diagnostics and, most critically, approval for all these things from the insurance companies. "The delay in approvals often led to setbacks in her treatment and great pain," said Eisner. "There was plenty of waiting, with the doctors and hospitals always passing off the less lucrative procedures to one another. Certain hospitals would only do certain things."
Unlike in Canada, there was no home care available for her sister except for from cancer society volunteers. Courses of treatment that ran counter to the insurance company's ability to save money were vetoed.
"The last chemotherapy drug she was on was really helping her and really made her feel better but when the company decided the test numbers didn't look right, they stopped it because they said it wasn't going to cure her and they weren't going to spend the money on it," said Eisner. "She went into immediate decline. The treatment was entirely dictated by the insurance company and what it would pay."
When the disease reached the final stages, "Peggy was hesitant to go on palliative care because she was told they wouldn't cover anything that would help prolong her life, even things that would give her relief like getting fluids drained from her lungs and abdomen. She was told she wouldn't be able to have that because it might prolong her life. So she was real hesitant to sign up for palliative care, which would provide a hospital bed and home oxygen if needed."
Had she chosen too soon to go on palliative care, she knew it would mean that if a new drug were approved there would be a waiting period before she could get to be on it. "And the palliative care they offer is really quite dismal," said Eisner. "She couldn't even get a morphine pump. She really got pretty much nothing, just volunteers and the occasional nurse. The insurance companies controlled that."
When Peggy came to visit Kathy shortly before her death "she was absolutely shocked" that their mother's doctor here in Ontario called a case conference with two or three doctors and a couple of nurses and family members before releasing her from hospital after a bout of shingles. "Peggy was astonished by that because that never happens in the States. They never got the doctors together."
The short-sighted, profit-oriented approach to health care applies to prevention and diagnostics. Eisner's U.S. family members have far less access to tests like colonoscopies, which are routine for family members of colon cancer victims in Canada. Yet Peggy's adult daughter cannot afford the thousands of dollars one would cost because she doesn't have insurance. And their 57-year old brother, who has a "gold-plated" insurance plan, was only able to get a colonoscopy because two of their first-degree relatives had had colon cancer. If it had only been one, they wouldn't have paid. In Canada, any doctor can order one for anyone over 50.
Kathy Eisner was struck, when she began to research her sister's condition, by advice from her sister's local branch of the American Cancer Society. "They supplied a list of "useful organizations" to cancer patients. Topping the list were food banks. The implication was that Americans with cancer are likely to need have to choose between medicine and food."
"This is not a place Canadians want to go," said McSheffery, a physiotherapist and mother of two. "Kathy Eisner deserves a lot of thanks for her courage in coming forward and warning people about the dangers that await if we go down the Liberal-Conservative road of creeping privatization of health care."
McSheffrey said that only the NDP is committed and pledged to fight this creeping privatization. "We are working to stop Canada from slipping down the path to the medical and financial disasters an American-style system, as backed by the Liberals and the Conservatives, would bring to Canadians."
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