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jovahkaveeta t1_itoy61y wrote

Reply to comment by AutumnLeaves1939 in 12-year-old Iowa boy, artist sells paintings to help kids with cancer by Sariel007

We have a public system in Canada and people go to the USA to pay for treatments because doctors refuse to even try in some cases (due to cost benefit analysis)

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newfie9870 t1_itpq4bq wrote

Wait, what???

I'm Canadian and never heard of that. In fact my mom needed an extremely expensive surgery and treatment (probably hundreds of thousands in costs) that wasn't guaranteed to save her life and they did it.

What kind of treatment do people go to USA to get?

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jovahkaveeta t1_itq3ky8 wrote

Recent news story for a lady with cancer in the abdomen (I think maybe tied to colon?) . Doctors refused to operate and she ended up going to the US and pay 100k for the operation because she wanted to try even though chances were rather low that she would survive / get better. Still she felt that she should have the opportunity to try regardless.

Edit: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/windsor-essex-cancer-surgery-pay-out-of-pocket-1.6604129 it was appendix cancer.

The doctor claims that he sees quite a few Canadian patients looking to get the treatment and for whatever reason Canadian doctors either are not allowed or refuse to do the surgery.

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newfie9870 t1_itq8btz wrote

Shit that's heartbreaking.

I'm glad we have free healthcare but our system is fucked and poorly managed. Here in Quebec people are dying because of emergency room wait times

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