Hullabaloo, Canuck, Canuck!!*

Back some weeks ago, I posted a tidbit about Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams electing to seek treatment for a heart ailment here in the US. Some questioned whether this showed a lack of faith in the Canadian system. Well, he has since spoken:

“This was my heart, my choice and my health,” Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla.

“I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics.”

Uh huh…. Williams had been diagnosed with a heart murmur, the cause being a heart valve that wasn’t closing properly, creating a leak. This was considered a “moderate” problem. The Canuck docs told him to come back in six months. So, he goes back eight months later, and the docs tell him the “moderate” problem is now “severe”. I don’t know about y’all, but if I were a Canadian citizen diagnosed with a “moderate” heart leak, I would make arrangements to be on the list to get it fixed ASAP. Now Williams has to have surgery. So, he chooses to come to the US for treatment because, “ I wanted to get in, get out fast, get back to work in a short period of time.” He goes on to do a mea culpa of sorts:

“I would’ve been criticized if I had stayed in Canada and had been perceived as jumping a line or a wait list. … I accept that. That’s public life,” he said.

“(But) this is not a unique phenomenon to me. This is something that happens with lots of families throughout this country, so I make no apologies for that.”

Oh, really??? It happens a lot, does it?? Any reason as to why? Don’t bother answering. That was a rhetorical question. As though sensing his faux pas, Williams goes on to support the Canadian health system, though:

“I have the utmost confidence in our own health care system in Newfoundland and Labrador, but we are just over half a million people,” he said.

His excuse for going to the US is, “We don’t have enough people in our itty bitty province to rationalize having a specialist around, so I went to Florida, because y’all have docs doing this all the time.”

Williams also said he paid for the treatment, but added he would seek any refunds he would be eligible for in Canada.

“If I’m entitled to any reimbursement from any Canadian health care system or any provincial health care system, then obviously I will apply for that as anybody else would,” he said.

Dude knows how to work the system, I’ll give him that.

*A play on a song to which I am partial