weezie's Cancer Blog
September 26, 2008
| HEALTH CARE IN U.S.A. - GET INVOLVED | Views: 447 |
Not sure about you but this would be a major priority of mine if I lived in the U.S.A. Being a Canadian, I am blessed with a government who cares about its’ citizens heatlh and recover. Sure there are problems but I would not want to be fighting cancer without insurance. Here is a website that might be of interest, in case you want to be part of the solution.
http://www.voicefortheuninsured.org/
Weezie
Posted on September 26, 2008 at 8:39:52 AM by Louise (
HEALTH CARE IN U.S.A. - GET INVOLVED, 
20 comments)
HEALTH CARE IN U.S.A. - GET INVOLVED, 20 comments)
Thanks for your support -
Weezie,
THANKS. I agree. Too many here have no health insurance and that is bad.
I hope you are doing well, my friend.
I am about like usual. No better but at least no worst.
I love this nice cooler weather.
Have a great day, My friend.
My love, thoughts and prayers are always with you.
Hugs, Joyce In NC USA
Thanks for your caring Joyce. I was wondering about how your eyes were so I am glad to hear that it isn’t worse. You know I saw the movie SICKO by Michael Moore and I have been so angry about the lack of Health Care in the USA. If you get a chance, rent it. In our Province, Ontario, we pay nothing, well we pay for our healtcare in taxes. But when you go to the hospital you don’t pay for any surgeries, hospital stays, equipment, surgeon’ time etc. So there is nothing to worry about when you are sick. Yes we do have a bit of waiting times for non elective surgery ie: knee replacement, but if it is needed you pretty much get in right away. For example my lumpectomy surgery happened right away and my Ocology appts. & radiation started 2 months later after recovering from surgery. I just can’t imagine having to worry about any of that if you are sick or you need a repair job on your joints or broken bones, or god forbid cancer. Each province has their own health plan, but it is against Canadian law to charge for services that fall under the Health Act. We have had this since the 60’s, thanks to our Alberta premier, Tommy Douglas. I think that is why we have so mnay immigrants wanting to come to Canada.
Oh well I’m sure Hillary is going to make this her top top priority and she will win it, cause the corporate insurance, drug lobbiests are being found out and exposed for what they are. The American people just have to raise the rucus and it will become law.
So much for my ranting. Talk to you later friend. Take care of yourself and I hope your eyes start to improve.
Love and all that….
Weezie
hey Weezie,,, just thought that i would drop by to share what my doctor told me about 11/2 years ago and i find it to be very true,, He said to me on one visit.. Ray, do you take vitamin “D” and i said no,, so of course he said well it is a well known fact that vitamin “D” help to slow down the growth of the cancer… I finished radiation and chemo on june 29 2006 and was then told by by oncologist that i would need more chemo in the near future… well guess what today is sept. 25, 2008 and i have been having CT scans every 3 months for the past 2 years and everytime that i saw the oncologist after that (which was every 3 months) we saw that the cancer had grown but only by 2 millemetre .. so i truly believe that the vitamin”D” has helped slow things down.. and now my wife take it for prevention only.. I know that one day i will go and have more chemo,, and no matter what happens I know that i have received more time in living
And i must say yes we are very lucky to live in Canada and to have the health care service provided to us .. God is good
Dear Rayoflights; I went to your web page to find your vitals missing. Where do you live in Canada? Need to know more about you. Yes I have been taking Vitamin D since my first appt. with the Oncologist which was a year ago this past August. Thanks for your kind encouragement to me and to others. I am feeling really blue today because of Gemma’s post. I just can’t put my head around it. You might want to send her some of your faithful words, I think she needs them now more than ever. I am not a very religious person, although I always went to church while living at home from a very young age. Just got away from me but I do have faith.
Thanks for your words.
Weezie
Sure it sounds nice to have a socialized Govt run healthcare system. But the problem is that government only knows how to tax and limit your freedoms. Look how well they are doing with mortgages right now :) The reality is that when the going gets tough Canadians come down to the lower 48 for quality healthcare, when their life depends on it.
I live in NY and have insurance that i pay for that is affordable that covered me 100% after my deductible. I have an HSA account which is a “health savings account” that i contribute to every year that is tax deductible like an IRA. It’s my money. I control it and use it for medical expenses. I pay from that accoun my doctor bills.
My monthly premium is $147 /month with a $5600.00 deductible. I could have chosen a slightly higher premium for a lower deductible but i thought i was healthy. I’ve had this insurance for 2 years now and i didn’t come close to spending any money the first year cause i was fine. This year however i hit lotto when i got cancer. By Feb my deductible had been met and every pill, every test every doctor, every radiation etc. has been covered 100%. And i didn’t have to wait on line for my treatment either or use second rate doctors.
My insurance accepted Sloan Kettering where i got a consult and could have gotten my treatment if i so chose. I opted for Treatment at an excellent facility Stony Brook University hospital which was more convenient and closer to home.
Dear Jacques; I see your point but I will point out a couple of misnomers about our healthcare. It is the Americans that come up here to buy their drugs, by the thousands. I have never waited ever for excellent care by specialists or my own MD. True there are some cases depending on where you live, that requires a person to travel to the larger cities to get the operations they need. And there is a shortage of MD’s in the rural communities, just like the U.S. And yes if the surgery required is elective *non emergency, then you do get to wait in line. That line is usually 1 -2 months so that isn’t all that bad. You are a wise person, who knows how to save and where to put his money. This is not the case for so many millions of Americans who do not have that kind of money, for that matter Canadians too. True there are always problems with anything that is close to socialized authority, but why is it when a person is sick they have to beg their insurance company to have their medical treatment,or tests at that crucial time. It is when a person is most vulnerable.
I guess you saw the movie SICKO? It really made me wonder about the average American; the lack of caring to its’ citizens.
Just my thoughts.
Weezie
You are so right, Weezie. Millions of Americans don’t make the money to do as Jacques does. They make just enough to survive the necessities of life. My late son died at the age of 39 from a massive heart attack. He worked for the state and had health insurance. Because the deductible was so high he waited too long to go to the emergency room. He was leaving for the ER when he fell to the floor and died instantly. He may still have died but I have always thought that they might could have kept him alive if he had gone sooner.
You must be doing something right in Canada because I do know that medications are cheaper there.
I really hope that Hillary will win in her fight for health care.
About the Vitamin D. When they sent me to the Endocrinologist to check my parathyroid gland, she found that my Vitamin D level was too low. I was getting 400 IU of Vitamin D in my multi-vitamin tablet. Since it was too low she told me to take an additional tablet of 400 IU of Vitamin D. I take 800 IU of Vitamin D each day. When I went back recently for my check-up with her, my Vitamin D level was fine. I really don’t know how long my Vitamin D had been too low.
As for my eyes I have talked with 2 or 3 people that said their eyes fluctuated like mine after cataract surgery. One said it happened for a year and another said 8 months. Hopefully, with time, things will improve.
Take care, my friend, and I will talk to you later.
Love and hugs,
Joyce
Thanks, Weezie, for your comments about health care in the USA. I will check out the website when I have a little spare time…..The more information we all share, the more we learn about each other and ourselves. I had always had the impression that some Canadians had to wait forever to get care and sometimes the more affluent got treated faster or better. So it’s good to hear from a Canandian who’s “been there”.
Enjoy!
Weezie,
Just type in the following at the beginning of the post:
I changed mine because it helped my poor old eyes to read it a little better….LOL.
I hope you are doing well, my friend.
Have a great day.
Hugs, Joyce In NC
Hugs, Joyce In NC
At least these comments I did are a little darker than the others.
Hugs, Joyce In NC
Here goes again: You will have to be a > after the b. I had to leave it off so the line would show up.
And try that.
Everyway I try to type it in, it doesn’t show up.
If you will send me your email address, I will try to email it to you.
Put h3 between < > with no spaces.
Put font color=”blue” between < > with no spaces except between font and color.
Put b between < > with no spaces.
Put all that together with no spaces between anything except the words font and color
at the beginning before you type your post.
I pray this works this time…..LOL
Hugs, Joyce In NC
Thanks a bunch Joyce; I will try it next time I post. I printed out your instructions. Think I have to go back to computer school! Love to you. I have been terribly lax this week in responding to anyone. I have 3 girlfriends coming for dinner and overnight on Friday so you know how that goes. The dust testers arrive. Sooooo that means I am busy trying to set the table, make the lasagna, flowers etc. Want it to be great fun with lots of wine and laughter.
Hugs back.
Weezie
Hi Weezie…
I’m not doing the “bold type” thing…it wore me out just reading the different attempts to explainhow to do it! lol
Just checking in to see how you are doing. Take care!
Celeni
Dear Celeni; I will write you later. Just finished responding to about 30 emails since I was kind of racing around this past 10 days. I want to really spend some time to respond to your previous post. It deserves more attention. I am fine. will write to you tonight or tomorrow for sure.
Weezie
Hi Weezie,
Thanks for your stick it to cancer comment. It made me laugh. I am going to stick it so hard it’s going to cry for it’s mommy. I would like to stick it to the AMA while I am at it!
Love
Kathleen
Dear Weezie,
What a touchie subject for me on this one. Though, after my oncologist put me on disability I was given Medicare ( though, of course at a monthly fee, and a deductable and it doesn’t begin to pay all of any charges) This has put me in a very difficult situation in I have lived in my home for 22 years and I only learned last month that my Real Estate taxes went up more than $600.00 per year, But, with the real estate market what it is that presents another problem.
My lot in itself is 169.1 X 316.8 IRR, which was great when my children were small but I live in the city in an actual subdivision and the amount it costs to keep my yard maintained is becoming overwhelming. My back yard faces a park that is attached to an elementary school, which I like not having neighbor in the back, and having the school was a great selling point to me. So, that along with my homeowners insurance has put me in the situation of wondering if I need or should sell my home where I raised my children? Though, it would indeed be very difficult, there is just so much $$ at the end of the month. My only income being disability which is a small fraction of what my pay was beore diagnosis. Though, in all honesty, I was not prepared for any type of heath emergency. My children were young, I was young and never thought in a million years this would touch me any time in my life. I cannot stress to my own children enough to save, save save…..You just never know, For all that I made was spent doing for them and insuring all of their needs were met in every way. In retrospect, I could have probably done it thousands less, but I did what I did and it was all out of Love. But, lesson learned and I hope I can not only pass it on to my children but also to all 20 something’s that think they are living the dream, and I truly hope they do.
Weezie, we need to get together to go out and see,” The WOMEN”. I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOU LAUGH, AND WE COULD PICK jOYCE UP ON THE WAY. NOW, WOULDN’T THAT BE A HOOT?
ALWAYS, PATTY