Canadian Healthcare Equality Meets H1N1
Published November 08, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Events in Calgary last week provided a stark illustration of how Canadian healthcare values differ from American ones. As we’ve seen here in the US, H1N1 (which some health workers now call “heinie”, because patients tend to think it’s spelled HiNi) vaccine has been delayed and in short supply. The CDC has determined some vaccination priority groups in the midst of the pandemic. But none of us would really be surprised to find out that the wealthy and powerful, sports stars and celebrities were able to jump the line. Canadians generally would be mortified by this. But provincial health officials don’t just get mad – they get even.
Initially Canada believed it would have enough vaccine for everyone. So it opened clinics and vaccinated people on a first come, first served basis. Then it discovered the laws of (short) supply and (high) demand and regrouped. Meanwhile, a health service worker in Alberta decided (perhaps with a little financial help?) that the National Hockey League deserved preferential access to the scarce H1N1 vaccine. So Calgary Flames players and their families were duly jabbed.
Unfortunately, the worker chose the day before public flu clinics were closed due to the vaccine shortage. So as hours-long queues of residents were turned away, the NHL was safely put out of harm’s way. It turns out Canadians’ love of all things hockey only goes so far. Amid public outrage, health officials in Calgary duly fired the worker. Then the head of Alberta’s health service released a totally un-American statement:
“Our policies on vaccine distribution are designed to ensure an equitable distribution of the vaccine to all Albertans. The special treatment for the Flames and their families is unacceptable to us and contrary to all of our existing protocols and processes. I apologize for this breach of our duty to Albertans."
Equitable distribution of health services? Breach of duty to citizens? Firing a worker for making a profit on healthcare? What? Yep, it may sound like Greek to us, but in other developed nations healthcare is a right. This small breach of healthcare equality is something at which American healthcare bodies like the CDC don’t bat an eyelid (hence Goldman Sachs getting priority delivery, through regular channels, of enough vaccine doses to serve a hospital, while some hospitals went without.)
Of course, Canada's H1N1 response wasn't nearly as organized and equitable as many European nations. Britain sent vaccination invitations to high priority groups only, easily identified in their national health record. So did Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and France. All of these countries have universal healthcare systems, what many Americans disparagingly dismiss as "socialized medicine". Here in the US we believe those with money, power, and status should get the first and the best care.
Dr. Steve Field, president of the Royal College of General Physicians in Britain, puts it bluntly. He clearly points to Britain's socialized system as allowing the country to serve those who need care first: "It's not like the U.S., where it's the survival of the fittest and the richest." Our H1N1 vaccinations have indeed been a free-for-all. I wonder if we would change our minds about egalitarian healthcare in the middle of a severe pandemic -- perhaps heinie came too late (er, at the tail end?) for the great healthcare reform debate of 2009.
But speaking of rear ends and free-for-alls, here's a rude reminder that Tea Partiers didn't stop at town halls. No, it appears GOP "representatives" (in the true meaning of the word, unfortunately) behaved like complete heinies when the Democratic Women's Caucus took the floor to voice how healthcare reform would benefit women. Yes folks, it appears children run rampant in the capitol. These people are responsible for voting on serious issues?
Photo http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3166/2628787345_2a2e3083e5.jpg // CC BY 2.0
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Comments (19)
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
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Gillian Hubble is owner of Actively Fused, a consulting and healthcare advocacy firm, and a partner in KDG, a business development firm.
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Joe Lieberman: Don’t You Dare
This is what defines other nations from us. A healthy citizenry is a functioning country - period. I cannot stress this enough, the Republicans behave EXACTLY like the Broederbonders of apartheid south africa. I know this, because I spent many years being raised there as a child, shuttled back and forth between Britain and Africa. The Republicans creed and ideology is identical to that of the Broederbonders, which is no equality, bigotry and disenfranchisement. It is unconscienable to me, that any politician would not agree that health care should be a right. So many of our problems, including high prison populations, are due to this complete lack of altruism and care for one another. Absolutely disgraceful.
Posted by dee f. on 11/08/2009 @ 08:14AM PT
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You put your finger on it when you brought up "altruism". Ayn Rand is the high-priestess of American conservatism, despite their pandering to religious groups and the religious buy-in.
We can see their ideology in such gems as:
"Rights are moral principles which define and protect a man's freedom of action,but impose no obligation on other men."
"Poverty is not a mortgage on the labor of others - misfortune is not a mortgage on achievement - failure is not a mortgage on success - suffering is not a claim check, and its relief is not the goal of existence - man is not a sacrificial animal on anyone's altar nor for anyone's cause - life is not one huge hospital."
"When "the common good" of a society is regarded as something apart from and superior to the individual good of its members, it means that the good of *some* men takes precedence over the good of others, with those others consigned to the status of sacrificial animals."
"I am a man who does not exist for others."
"Businessmen are the one group that distinguishes capitalism and the American way of life from the totalitarian statism that is swallowing the rest of the world. All the other social groups- workers, farmers, professional men, scientists, soldiers- exist under dictatorships, even though they exist in chains, in terror, in misery, and in progressive self-destruction. But there is no such group as businessmen under a dictatorship. Their place is taken by armed thugs: by bureaucrats and commissars. Businessmen are the symbol of a free society- the symbol of America."
"Economic power is exercised by means of a positive, by offering men a reward, an incentive, a payment, a value; political power is exercised by means of a negative, by the threat of punishment, injury, imprisonment, destruction. The businessman's tool is values; the bureaucrat's tool is fear."
This language rings with American conservatives as they live and vote their gospel of rational ego instead of the Gospel of Faithful Sacrifice deplored by Ms. Rand.
If anyone doubts the connection, it need only be said that, among the influential, she was a mentor to Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan and is touted as a prophet by Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.
Posted by Harold Lewis on 11/09/2009 @ 11:48AM PT
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I wonder how many times and how loudly we have to continue to argue and fight for health care for all. The rationale is a no-brainer, yet you have ignorant, greedy, self-serving people in Congress who do not give a damn for most Americans. Now, we finally get health care reform on the table for debate, yet the Republicans, and even some Blue Dogs don't believe this is worth the effort. Meanwhile, people are dying and going broke because of our misguided, and unfair health care system. I'm ready to storm the Capitol, I'm so sick of this BS.
Posted by Barbara McNamara on 11/08/2009 @ 08:51AM PT
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I commented on this, then I watched the video. So this is what we have in Congress today - a cross between bullies on the playground, with just as much immaturity, and very stupid people. The Chairman should have asked them to leave for not following orders. UNBELIEVABLY SAD AND PATHETIC!
Posted by Barbara McNamara on 11/08/2009 @ 09:06AM PT
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Saddest part is that we as a nation have chosen (via vote) for these individuals to represent us in Congress!
Posted by Fred Frankenberg on 11/08/2009 @ 10:52AM PT
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In all fairness, Fred, we've built a system where there is no choice but to side with the pro-corporate party. The Dems and Republicans buy into the same overarching market ideology.
The majority of voters and both parties agree that it is a commodity, not a right. This needs to become a rights campaign before it can become a proper campign for reform. We haven't gone through it.
I guess I was hoping for a simultaneous transformation or society and the health care system.
Posted by Harold Lewis on 11/09/2009 @ 08:43AM PT
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Harold, you were not the only one.
Posted by Lauren Serven on 11/10/2009 @ 01:59AM PT
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Ask Nancy if she got her flu shot! Meanwhile little kids are dying in our country because they have asthma and caught the flu. What a $^&*
Don't ask for common sense. Congress DOESN'T have any! Way out of touch and never ready to sacrafice for anyone but themselves.
Posted by James Turner on 11/09/2009 @ 03:21AM PT
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You missed the point of the story...The fact is that even with the all altruistic social healthcare of Canada there was still a shortfall in vaccines. It did not make it better. Visit http://cutoffcongress.org/
Posted by David Bass on 11/09/2009 @ 05:27PM PT
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No Dave, you missed the point. The shortfall was not the fault of Canada, unless you can blame them for believing....a capitalist! I guess it is safe to say that on the sinking ship that is the US healthcare system (and dare I say economic system) the adage is not woman and children first. Even animals protect their young.
Posted by Lauren Serven on 11/10/2009 @ 01:57AM PT
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Dave,
The point is that, despite best intentions, there will always be shortfalls in supply but a just and equitable society does not tolerate allocation to socially and economically favored groups over groups at greater risk.
Further, the care system in Canada has good intentions and is based on human rights. Our care system has no basis in rights and has no intention other than profit for its own sake.Theirs is not a failure of altruism. It was a failure to plan properly. The other nations cited operate from the same altruism and succeeded. Our nation has not succeeded in its vaccination goals. That should be your focus.
As all economies exist to allocate scarce resources in a manner suited to best address the needs of all people in the society, we have failed.
Posted by Harold Lewis on 11/10/2009 @ 05:52AM PT
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According to this poll, 32% of Canadians are unsatisfied with the federal government's response to H1N1.
http://www.visioncritical.com/2009/11/canadians-lambast-provincial-federal-government-response-to-h1n1/
You bring up a good point. I wonder if H1N1 will change peoples' opinions of national healthcare.
Posted by Christopher Trottier on 11/10/2009 @ 03:37PM PT
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And they should be critical. They should push for better and better. I'll guarantee that with all their frustration on this issue they wouldn't trade their system for ours.
More to the point, where other nations have succeeded and ours has failed and Canada has struggled with regard to vaccination goals, the people operate non-profit systems based on care as a human right. Canada will look to them and not us when it comes to correcting their system.
Those here and abroad who embrace health care as a human right will continue to support some form of national health care system and those in this nation who maintain that it is a commodity to be doled out according to one's economic and perceived social value will persist in blocking a national health care system.
Posted by Harold Lewis on 11/11/2009 @ 04:47AM PT
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Canada is starting to look better and better to me. I'm not at all pleased with my peak into the congressional process this year. I won't support a country that caters to big corporations over the health and fairness towards the American people. If the people lose to big corp, and nothing can be done, because "that's just how we've always done things", then I'm gonna have to seriously reconsider my place in this world. I won't add to the GDP of a country that is corrupt from Blackwater to the backrooms of congress.
Posted by CherokeeGirl for Change on 11/11/2009 @ 12:08PM PT
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woops, this one had a typo, see below instead. :-o
Posted by CherokeeGirl for Change on 11/11/2009 @ 12:13PM PT
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Canada is starting to look better and better to me. I'm not at all pleased with my peek into the congressional process this year. I won't support a country that caters to big corporations over the health and fairness of the American people. If the people lose to big corp, and nothing can be done, because "that's just how we've always done things", then I'm gonna have to seriously reconsider my place in this world. I won't add to the GDP of a country that is corrupt from Blackwater to the backrooms of congress.
Posted by CherokeeGirl for Change on 11/11/2009 @ 12:09PM PT
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I am happy to hear that Canada and the European countries are doing things equitably when it comes to the H1N1 vaccination program, but that is no reason to misrepresent and demonize the U.S.
I work at ground zero, when it comes to the H1N1. At our Urgent Care Center, I personally treat 5-10 adults and kids with H1N1 per day. I have had the H1N1 myself and have passed it on to my 14 year old daughter who was out of school for 10 days with complications of pneumonia (which is the cause of death of many who have succumb to this tragic pandemic). She is doing well now, thank you.
The CDC has given clear directives when it comes to the distribution of H1N1 vaccines. These are passed down to the local departments of health, who are administering and distributing the vaccines to local physicians and organizations. The directives are as follows:
"Current projections of initial vaccine supply indicate that establishment of a subset of the five initial target groups will not be necessary in most areas. However, demand for vaccination and initial supply might vary considerably across geographic areas. If the supply of the vaccine initially available is not adequate to meet demand for vaccination among the five target groups listed above, ACIP recommends that the following subset of the initial target groups receive priority for vaccination until vaccine availability increases (order of target groups does not indicate priority):
*pregnant women,
*persons who live with or provide care for infants aged <6 months (e.g., parents, siblings, and daycare providers),
*health-care and emergency medical services personnel who have direct contact with patients or infectious material,children aged 6 months--4 years, and
*children and adolescents aged 5--18 years who have medical conditions that put them at higher risk for influenza-related complications.
This subset of the five target groups comprises approximately 42 million persons in the United States. Vaccination programs and providers should give priority to this subset of the five target groups only if vaccine availability is too limited to initiate vaccination for all persons in the five initial target groups."
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr58e0821a1.htm
There may be disagreement on whether these are the right priority groups, but this is clearly not in line with what Dr. Steve Field, the president of the British Royal College of General Physicians insinuates when he stated: "It's not like the U.S., where it's the survival of the fittest and the richest." or Mr. Hubble's remarks: "Our H1N1 vaccinations have indeed been a free-for-all".
Is there abuse by some to the system, certainly!!! Those responsible should be held accountable, like who ever gave Goldman Sack the vaccines in the first place. Could it be the same folks that gave them Billions of dollars in bailouts?
As to the video. Whether Democrat or Republican... Do you really want those jokers (with the outmost of respect) to run your health care system?
Dr. Sam
Posted by Sam Rabinowitz on 11/11/2009 @ 01:50PM PT
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Dr. Sam, I don't think "those jokers" will be running our healthcare system. They will simply be using the medicare model to insure more americans.
The same people will be running our healthcare, there will just be an additional option for insurance.
That's all. The question is, will the legislation hand over millions of new customers to big insurance with an unfair mandate? Or will they allow all access to the public option and the exchange?
Posted by CherokeeGirl for Change on 11/12/2009 @ 11:07AM PT
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I agree, the CDC has established priority groups for H1N1 vaccination. Unfortunately it has no controls to ensure that those groups receive priority vaccination. As the original article about Goldman Sachs and Citigroup clarifies, these corporate giants received vaccine via normal CDC channels: http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/nov2009/db2009112_606442.htm
Posted by Gillian Hubble on 11/12/2009 @ 01:18PM PT
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