Posted by: ST on February 23, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Via The Canadian Press:
An unapologetic Danny Williams says he was aware his trip to the United States for heart surgery earlier this month would spark outcry, but he concluded his personal health trumped any public fallout over the controversial decision.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Williams said he went to Miami to have a “minimally invasive” surgery for an ailment first detected nearly a year ago, based on the advice of his doctors.
“This was my heart, my choice and my health,” Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla.
“I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics.”
[...]
Williams said he didn’t announce his departure south of the border because he didn’t want to create “a media gong show,” but added that criticism would’ve followed him had he chose to have surgery in Canada.
“I would’ve been criticized if I had stayed in Canada and had been perceived as jumping a line or a wait list. … I accept that. That’s public life,” he said.
“(But) this is not a unique phenomenon to me. This is something that happens with lots of families throughout this country, so I make no apologies for that.”
Williams said his decision to go to the U.S. did not reflect any lack of faith in his own province’s health care system.
“I have the utmost confidence in our own health care system in Newfoundland and Labrador, but we are just over half a million people,” he said.
“We do whatever we can to provide the best possible health care that we can in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Canadian health care system has a great reputation, but this is a very specialized piece of surgery that had to be done and I went to somebody who’s doing this three or four times a day, five, six days a week.”
But if CanadaCare really is so great – - – -
Oh, hell. Nevermind.
Rob Port astutely notes:
Two things of note there. First, he acknowledges that lots of Canadians are forced to leave their state-controlled health care system to get the care they need.
Second, he also seems to be alluding to Canadian political leaders apparently being able to “cut in line” on the Canadian waiting lists for care.
All Canadians are equal, I guess, except that some Canadians (the ones who can afford to come to America for care, or the ones who get to “cut in line” in Canada) are more equal than others.
It’s the “separate but equal” version of healthcare, you see – just like it will soon be here, if O and Co. have their way about it.
“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” G. Orwell, Animal Farm
And when the jackasses pass their health care legislation, the higher rank you are in either the political arena, the union or academia, the more equal you will be.
If that abortion of legislation passes, it should be required that no one, especially legislators, can go outside the system to get care (which would effectively eliminate their own golden cadillac health plan).
Personally, I don’t blame Williams for coming here to get his operation. But if I were him (or any other Canadian), I would be doing everything in my power to prevent this country from instituting federalized health care because it’s going to leave them with few options to go where they can get decent care.
It’s also a point the Republicans could use in their televised farce on Thursday with Duh-1.
These admissions are always rebuffed or explained away by Canadian defenders of their health care system. A Canadian visitor to another blog I frequent constantly contradicts such posts with claims that he’s never seen or experienced what others depict as the evils of their system. I’ve even seen Martin Short shake his head and deny it in a very condescending “conservatives are full of it” demeanor. What I’ve heard is that the quality of care is very uneven throughout Canada and this could account for those who defend it. But they should at least listen to their own countrymen who complain.
Wow. I was just wondering what happened to this story (I had covered it on my own blog). Thanks for posting this ST. This man’s arrogance is wrong on so many levels, it leaves me almost speechless. Just where does His Majesty, The Prime Minister of Newfoundland and Labrador (all bow) think he’s going to go for treatment once we’ve gone down Canada’s road? There are people in Canada who have to wait for their number to come up in a lottery before they can get an appointment.
I just remembered: a friend in Montreal recently experienced another friend of his losing her baby to a miscarriage, because the proper facilities weren’t close enough (thanks to government medical rationing) and there was no way to get her to the States. And this elitist prat thinks it’s no big deal that he could not only jump the line, but jump to another country to get the treatment he needs?
What a jackass. It makes me wish I could switch citizenship long enough to vote against him.
The same holds true of American politicians. However, everyday citizens will not fare quite so well.
I don’t blame him for doing his best when his own heart is on the line. I blame him for not doing his best when other hearts less fortunate than his are on the line.
And that, Vatar, is the whole thing so succinctly put.
I would not begrudge our congressmen and president nearly as much as I do if they lived by the same rules they force on us, but they don’t, and I do.
With Walter Reed so close to the capitol, they can generally feel ok about whether they’ll have good care. All I can say about that is that, when they force this upon us, one of them will have a heart attack that requires them to be taken to the nearest hospital, where the care will be incredibly inferior to what is available now, and the congressman, bless his soul, will die as a result. Poetic justice at its best.
Well, I’m guessing those Canadian politicians are praying Obama won’t be able to pass the same sort of health care system here that they have in Canada. Because if he does, then where the heck are they all going to go in order to get good medical care fast? No place in this hemisphere. And no place in Europe as the Europeans have the same system as Canada…only worse.
Danny Williams is correct when he says some of the best heart surgeons in the world are in Canada. It is also possible because of his condition he could have been taken in immediately. However if he had managed to pass a few in the lineups the media would have trashed him over the preferencial treatment to the point he would have almost had to resign. If a professional athlete goes to the emerg up here with a bone sticking out of his leg the whiners will start about how the rich so and so jumped the line. People in the USA take a look at our system and keep up the fight against it.