Letter - Health care letter is inaccurate and misleading

To the editor:

Mr. Myron Swanberg wrote a letter to you that was published regarding the case of Mrs. Shona Holmes and the ads that are running in the U.S. featuring her. Mr. Swanberg’s letter was very well written. It is unfortunate that it is inaccurate and misleading.

Mrs. Holmes was actually told she would be dead if she waited until her scheduled Canadian appointments. She was told this by a neurosurgeon at the Arizona Mayo Clinic, who also happened to be a Canadian doctor, familiar with both health care systems. Mr. Swanberg either chose to ignore this fact or simply didn’t research the issue more thoroughly before sounding off.

That aside, Mrs. Holmes’ vision had already been reduced by more than 50 percent and she would have been blind had she waited like she was supposed to as a good little Canadian. Let me ask your readers this: Would you let yourself go blind while waiting, even if you had not been told you would expire while awaiting more testing?

I am one who supports universal health care, but only if it works. In this case and several others in the press, it has not. A similar case has already ruled that the province of Quebec’s system has dropped the ball regarding wait times and the affected procedures are now allowed to be insured privately due to the failure of universal health care in that province. See: 2005 Supreme Court decision of Chaoulli v. Quebec.

Geoff Kerr

Burlington, Ontario, Canada

Tags: opinion, letters