Four or five times a year, my beloved wife of 30+ years takes it on the lam and spends a weekend away. Sometimes, it's a small burg like Cobleskill (love the Howe Caverns!), and sometimes it's a big city like Boston or NYC. These are all within driving distance, as we live in New England. This weekend, we drove to that other country that celebrates Labour Day - Canada. It was a delightful weekend, except for one thing: My wife Virginia tripped and hit the street. Hard. She needed medical attention.
I can tell you, I was very worried. I've been hearing nothing but horror stories about the Canadian Health Care Delivery system. What would happen? Would she be treated? Would it cost a fortune for us foreigners?
I have a friend, Dan, who lives in Toronto, and we were registered at a downtown hotel. I immediately called him. He is an athletic fellow, and every now and then feels the need to access health care for sore joints, stubbed toes, other exercise injuries, so he had some advise. His first point, a question really, was what kind of f**ked up system do we have in the US? Was my wife's job really at risk if she ended up with a broken bone and had to be out for 6 weeks? (Well, she did not have that kind of sick time on the books, so while her job wouldn't be at risk, she would have to take time off without pay - unless her union coworkers donated some of their time.) His second was to call a clinic. There are many around, and they are very good. Their goal is to treat the patient if they can - most of the time - and avoid the emergency room. Well, late afternoon on a Saturday of a holiday weekend is not a good time to get into a clinic. We called 2 or 3, they were all closed already except for one, which was closing in a few minutes and wouldn't see us. How about private doctors? We called around, there were many, but they, too, were on holiday. So, Dan called his doctor and explained the situation. She recommended the only option - the ER - but not at her hospital because, well, it was a trauma center, and it was the Saturday of a long weekend... the wait might well be 12 to 18 hours. But this was Toronto, there are many hospitals, she recommended 2 or 3. We chose one, and went.
We sat down and started the process. The clerk kindly informed us that the up front fee for foreigners is $500 Canadian, they take credit cards. Then, the triage nurse took a look. Virginia's hand took the brunt of the fall, it hit the pavement and then her head hit the hand. She was certain there was at least one broken bone in there. They took her back to the cot behind the curtain. This was within a half hour of getting there - and included the triage nurse getting her rings off. NB: If you hurt your hand, take any rings off RIGHT AWAY and save yourself some grief.
Virginia, seated on the cot and waiting for x-ray and the Doc, graciously told Dan - who showed up at the hospital for moral support - and me to go ahead and go out to dinner. Everyone had cell phones, and she'd call as soon as there was anything of substance to report. Dan lived a short distance away - about 10 minutes by cab. We went.
Less than an hour later, Virginia called. She'd had the x-ray and seen the doctor. Nothing broken, but ice it up, take ibuprofen, and take it easy. Well, we seemed to have dodged the bullet.
Dan said sometimes, we luck out, didn't have to wait long, were seen right away. It might have been different... but it wasn't. We were in a foreign country that had universal health care, been hurt in an accident, and had it taken care of in a couple of hours for $500. And, they clerk there at the hospital recommended we claim the $500 on Virginia's health insurance coverage. I'm doubtful... but it doesn't hurt to try it. We'll put in a claim, see what happens.
In the end, we went out to dinner a couple of hours late, to a great bistro that Dan knew, and had a great dinner. Virginia is a little sore, and she went to her own doctor when we got home - he told her to ice it up, take some ibuprofen, and take it easy.
We need to fix our broken health care system.