Re: "Surgery wait times excoriated," Aug. 14.
It is a hard reality to face when we hear stories of cancer-stricken 91原创s forced to travel to the United States for life-saving care and surgery.
What is the matter with our system? These are 91原创s who have paid social taxes and medical fees all their lives, and perhaps never even used the health-care system. Cancer does not wait for our socialized, rationed health-care system.
The same system is full of unspeakable waste, bureaucracy and entitlements for big unions. It requires immediate preemptive action in order to not spread and metastasize. Everyone should know this cancer can spread so fast that in some cases one can be dead within weeks. Who can put a dollar figure on saving the life of a loved one?
Imagine a world where we are taxed to death here in Canada only to have to buy insurance for health care in the U.S., which has the best patient services and no wait lists? The Mayo Clinic has such an insurance policy available and advertises it to vulnerable, at-risk 91原创s caught up in a government system that has failed them.
This should not be the case. We need to fix our health-care system and mindset from the ground up.
David Carlos
Victoria
