A World of Cheese, For your Pleasure

Mr. Cernetig went to a clinic in Westmount, a rich part of Montreal, complaining of something or other. Normally, a person would go to a clinic and wait for at least an hour, often 2 or 3, before someone could come see them for five minutes. (There are horror stories of the dying being left in a hallway for 9 hours.) As bad as that sounds, Canadians are generally guaranteed whatever help they need, even though it might take months to get treatment, or weeks to see a specialist. The philosophy is that basic and even not-so-basic health care is a fundamental right for everyone. No one should be turned away because they can't pay, which is what happens every day in the U.S. (I've heard horror stories from staff about that, too.)

So Mr. C. goes into a clinic in Westmount, pays $38 for a blood test and is offered programs ranging from $350 to almost $1000 for different programs offering different coverage and even a VIP room. I expect all my VIP rooms to come with dancing girls, in this case, dressed like naughty nurse whores that my old boss has always been into. (I always get a kick out of that. He has been dating a nurse for the past two years, and I always wonder how naughty she is. But I digress.)

The problem is whether or not this violates the spirit of the health care system in this country. I generally support having these private clinics around. The very rich and even the middling rich have always paid for private health care one way or another, and there are always good doctors that respond to the dollar and clients that appreciate you and aren't crazy versus chaos and crapallday. And it might very well be worth it to me to pay to get the extras. At a time when the provinces think that the few billion over the next few years from the federal government is not enough to maintain the system let alone improve it, perhaps this is exactly what the system needs: relief from people willing to pay for things on their own, and a lowering of the numbers of people using the system.

On the other hand, how many rich or middling-rich people actually do pay their own way compared to the millions that still use the public system? Does it make that much of a difference? I don't know. I don't have any numbers with me. Also, although private clinics don't violate the wording of Health Care Act (I made that up, actually, I don't know what it is called), it may violate the spirit of the Act by creating and allowing, sometimes even promoting a two- or three-tier system, when the spirit implies that we should all have quality health care. Maybe we do, but those with money get a higher-quality system. It's all relative, I guess. If I broke my leg in Egypt, I could pay about $40 and get treated like a king. In an out in an hour.

In the end, I suppose I would have to support the private clinics (in spirit, of course) as long as the public system remains intact. It will be interesting to see what the provinces and the feds settle on.

(Aside: Does anyone know how I can prevent the picture on the guy above from being attached directly to the paragraphs? I'd like to have some spacing there.)