Question from the commentary

Anonymous writes, “I’m curious, have you had discussions with Canadians about their health care system Vs the US current system, as well as the health care reform plan being pushed by Obama?”  Good question and one that I would only recently be able to answer with any depth.  I read this post dispelling myths about Canadian health care just recently which should give a little primer in the right direction.  I’ll try to break down what I think is important into logical parts.

What I know and have heard the Canadian system:

• Everyone is insured and private insurance is either rare or nonexistent.  Immigrants notoriously have trouble finding work but still have medical coverage through the state.  The homeless and drug users on the streets still have opportunities to get coverage.  Everyone has health insurance.  Period.
• How much you pay for coverage is proportional to how much money you make.  If you make a pretty average loot right out of university, your monthly payment is somewhere around $20.
• Medical professionals are paid through governmental billings but many still set up their own place of practice making the system semi-private in a sense.
• You don’t get turned away if you need help but you may be put on hold depending on the circumstance.
• There are obviously times where you’ll have to wait for medical services.  For example, if you get an elective surgery or need t0 see a specialist, expect to wait weeks or months.  If you do wait, you are prioritized according to both urgency and how many others are waiting for the same procedure.
• Much less overhead cost due to lack of necessity for marketing, administrative tasks and the ability of the government to get drugs in bulk for the best possible prices.
• Cheaper drugs for the patient in the end (obviously why many Americans would bus across the border for prescriptions).

What I understand and have experienced within the current American system:

• Nearly all insurance is private with the exception of Medicare and Medicaid.  Most plans are offered through employment so those who are poor or without jobs almost never have insurance.
• A good 15% are uninsured and another 25% of insured only have the most basic care covered leaving them ill prepared for an emergency.  This leaves 40% of the population in pretty rough shape.
• Wait times depend on how comprehensive your coverage plan is.  Certain procedures and specialists are easier to find in the States.
• Not a lot of people are actually turned away (from what I understand) but if you lack adequate coverage and fall victim to an emergency, you’ll be shelling out even the kitchen sink.
• MD’s are paid much better in the States due to the nature of the free market.  If profit is what you seek, look no further than the US of A.
• More and better technology to support medical professionals.

In terms of Obama’s plan, though I’ve heard a few Canadians root for his ideas for universal care, I really haven’t heard a lot of conversation about specifics so I assume many Canadians I know are in the dark about the details.  If you’re a Canadian in this camp, this is my best stab at what’s on the table.  Feel free to correct my mistakes.  From what I understand, Obama plans to introduce a governmental health care option to compete with private insurance plans, essentially leaving the market open for private competition.  The plan promises to be cheap but certainly not free and available to absolutely everyone.  I don’t think the plan is to get every American insured, but rather provide as low cost of an option for those who need it.  This is only speculation but I think the introduction of such a plan carries a long term goal of becoming one of very few options and certainly the choice of the everyday person.  The American system will never be entirely public but if all goes according to Obama’s plan, options will be very limited in a decade.

My personal assessment is that the Canadian health care system creates a unity amongst citizens that health care in an inalienable right and that they are all in this thing together.  No one believes the poor deserve to be sick or dying just because they lack the resources to do something about it.  The difference here is the American system allows this sort of disparity to happen at the end of the day.  Comprehensive care in Canada has become a proud symbol associated with their culture and the attitude permeates in countless ways.  I’ve heard nothing but satisfactory personal accounts from friends who have used the system their entire lives.  Both sides of the border get flack/praise from the wings that entirely misrepresent the big picture of each program so don’t just believe everything you see in Sicko.  ER wait times aren’t ridiculous here but they aren’t nonexistent either.  Certain doctors may be in shorter supply in Canada, but are by no means impossible to find for any variety, save for the most obscure.  Most studies rank each system pretty close to each other in terms of overall quality with Canada edging out America slightly more often than the other way around.  Different methods of measurement will yield different results.  Life expectancy is slightly higher in Canada and obesity rates are significantly lower (particularly in BC).  Stats and ratings give a vague understanding of the differences but in my opinion, the true quality of the system lies in the ethics behind it.  Feel free to decide if you share that ethic or carry a different one with a more American, capitalistic overtone.

For more concrete details, this wikipedia article is a good compendium comparing the two.

Being THAT American

Let me just preface the post by saying that regardless of the lies I’ve told you, I haven’t skipped around the globe just yet and I’m still quite green to travel and especially international travel (and yes Canada does count as international folks).  Basically, coming here has

America! FUCK YEA!

been my first experience where I’ve felt like I’m that American amongst a globalized crowd of internationals.   With that out there, we’re going to swerve away from the premise momentarily and hopefully make it full circle by the end.

I was listening to a CBC podcast the other day (quirks and quarks) that featured a psychologist doing a study relating aggressive behavior to facial proportions.  Specifically, the predictive factor was the width to height ratio of a man’s face.  The study tracked hockey players based on these traits and counted their penalty minutes accordingly (a likely way to conduct a Canadian experiment).  Lo and behold their hypothesis was confirmed and wide-faced men spent a greater share of time in the box.  Likewise, a similar result was produced in a controlled experiment where the participant would play a FPS game and player’s actions were rated based on aggressiveness.  A higher width-to-height face ratio was strongly correlated with more aggressive behaviors.  As a fair observation, I don’t think it would be out of the question to label myself a moderately wide-face having guy.  I’ve looked in a mirror before.  Tell me if I’m wrong but it’s just a hunch.

This whole bit reminded me vaguely of a long dead criminological theory relating body types to personality, formally labeled Somatotypology.  Within Sheldon’s model, there are three body types, the endomorphs, mesomorphs and ectomorphs, each having corresponding character traits.  Specifically, these bodily archetypes were supposed to be helpful for predicting criminal behavior.  It’s an outdated theory that social scientists basically reject on the basis that biology can’t determine anything accurately in the behavioral realm.  A flawed argument in my opinion but I won’t delve into that.  Casting out the criticism of the theory, within the model, I pretty clearly represent the classic case of a mesomorph which wikipedia describes as having “large bones, a solid torso, low fat, wide shoulders, and a narrow waste.”  This isn’t an observation to up my ego or anything but given the other choices, it’s the only one that fits the bill.  Again, this body type is associated with aggressive behavior, risk taking, and higher crime rates.  Throwing the crime rate bit aside, this model actually fits part of my character description quite well.  I can think of others I know who don’t fit within this bodily profile quite as well but for me, it kind of works.  Also, you’d have to figure that wide faces and mesomorphic body structures more often than not coincide with each other.  It gets kind of scary at this point.

Almost full circle.  Close to the border as we Americans are, it turns out that very few of us are itching to get into Canada.  Threats during election times are never more idle than the classic “if so and so doesn’t make it to office, I’m packing my bags and b-lining to Canada!”  No one really follows through (cept me.  Screw you Obama!).  We’re too busy ignoring the world to actually take notice of anything north of us seriously.  Basically, I’ve met very few Americans here and it doesn’t appear to be a localized trend.  Americans just have no interest in their northern neighbor other than snickering at a pseudo country they often refer to as America’s cap.  A few visit for vacation but no one really wants to immigrate.  It’s just not a very American thing to do.

As the new kid on the block, I’ve had to go through the standard introduction with individuals and groups of people many times now.  For the first while, I shied away from the fact of my nationality as an obvious bias against Americans exists pretty much everywhere outside the country.  If the topic came up I’d have to admit my original sin but until that point, I wasn’t itching to get the stink eye from a stranger.  When the topic does comes up, it’s almost funny to see people stumble over their words trying to mask their emotions with something along the lines of “I’ve got no problem with Americans per se but their [politics, attitudes, people] blah blah…” as if I’m not a product of the country I came from and don’t constitute one of those Americans just because I’m here talking to you here and now in the present   The other common reaction consists of eyes lighting up, a little grin forming and the person saying “OOOOOOHHHHHH,” as if it makes all too much sense.  I’ve recently become more comfortable with admitting my nationality and I’ve tweaked my introduction accordingly to include off the bat “… and I’m a recent arrival from the States.”  It’s a silly little social experiment and invokes some pretty funny reactions.  Upon reflection, it almost perpetuates the stereotype a little, as any American who is assertive enough to admit where they’re from right away is probably extra ignorant and likely to be the prototype they expect.

Just to be clear, stereotypically we are cocksure, arrogant, pushy, money grubbing bullies, entirely ignorant of international affairs and

thanks a bunch big guy

the environment.  A wonderful laundry list of things to be right?  Admittedly, a good share of Americans have a few of these traits but very few embody all of them at once (those who do are almost surely proud of it).  I for one consider myself anything but educated on foreign affairs on many issues and find myself being a little too pushy in lots of instances.  Especially here.  I readily rush across a clear intersection despite the red light in front of me, while the Canucks patiently await  the friendly walk signal.  I climb escalator steps two by two as if they were a stair master.  Biking from place to place is a short form tour de Vancouver rather than a moderate or even reasonably paced ride.  I’m basically out of breath and or dripping sweat where ever I end up.  Needless to say, the same rush isn’t exhibited by many around me.  Maybe it’s more my personality than anything or maybe it’s the combination of me meeting the west coast.  Perhaps I don’t hang around enough businessy people at this point to see this same attitude.  Either way, it exemplifies my nationality and while I have little desire to change it 90% of the time, the other 10% I feel kinda bad that I’m perpetuating the Yankee caricature and force myself to slow the eff down.

I guess the point of all is that I inherently have all kinds of strikes against me and I’m hopelessly destined to be recognized as an American from the start unless I go so far as to wear a bag over my head, wear a full body pumpkin suit and adopt a different accent.  I do find myself filling the role of the classic American without trying and it’s frankly a little embarrassing at times.  I thin
k most of us would discover the same thing if we only took a step outside our vast empire and saw our reflection deeper than the surface once in a while.  Though I admit that the stereotype is true in a lot of ways, I still contend it’s a bit unfair, as anyone from any place can show a similar demeanor.  Just because I’m American and display a certain confidence in myself, doesn’t mean the stars have aligned once again.  Yes, I have more than a few American values instilled in me but as quickly as you judge me, I’m judging you for your hasty judgement.  See what I did there?  Forgive my egregious Americanisms when they happen to offend you Vancouverites.  I’m making an effort to blend and probably calling myself out long before you do.

Canadian politics

I’m slowly but surely absorbing the finer points of calling elections, what the different elected positions are responsible for, and why the monarch still exists within Canada if only in symbolic form.  To be honest, it’s all very coherent if you have any understanding of the governing system in the UK (a duh).  Nonetheless, videos like this are slightly more helpful at conveying how confusing the Canadian system can be, rather than diving into long winded descriptions which make about the same amount of sense in twice the time with half the laughs.  Tip of the mountie hat to perhaps my most influential blogger, Minnesota’s very own Greg Laden.

On a related note, I came across the bio of an iconic past Prime Minister while wikipediaing recently.  Conclusion: Pierre Trudeau possesses cahones of pure bronze.  It upsets me that the era of this sort of wiley political figure has almost surely come and gone for the West.  The best entertainment in 21st century American politics come from the likes of Mark Sanfords and Sarah Palins instead.  Admittedly, Obama also tends to keep things interesting every few weeks (hilarious video).  I digress.  I leave you with two of Trudeau’s finest appearances on youtube.  In the first video, he fends off a probing reporter with characteristicly scrappy debating.  In the second, we revisit the infamous “fuddle duddle” incident.