Has anyone seen the Romney ad comparing the Canadien health care

[Kingofalldems]

system to what they call 'Obamacare', saying that they are basically the same thing? I hope the campaign hits back hard on this, another whopper from Romney.

[Blue Meany]

1. Haven't seen it here (Maine). But people here know about the Canadian healtcare system

and would like to have it. Our state systems is a start, but the idea was craft a Canadian-like system, one step at a time.

[Kingofalldems]

4. The narrator was a lady who claimed she couldn't get

critical treatment for a potentially fatal brain illness and had to come to the states to save her own life.

[Spazito]

7. The woman is, to put it bluntly a proven fucking liar...

no surprise there given who is paying for the ad, Americans for Prosperity. Here is some info from an Ottawa Citizen article from 2009 when the liar first surfaced:

"Holmes has become the darling of conservatives and the stop-public-health-care movement in the United States. She's testified before Congress, been on Fox TV as well as CNN, and her story is retold on hundreds of right wing blogs. She's now doing a nasty TV ad for Patients United Now, a Republican-led group opposed to Obama's reforms. You can see the ad at www.patientsunitednow.com. The group is spending almost $2 million on it to target politicians in Washington.

For a person living with cancer, the idea that someone's care could be unreasonably delayed is truly scary. It also doesn't reflect the experience I've had or the experiences that have been shared with me by so many other patients. Even CNN interviewed Doug Wright, a more typical patient in Toronto who is receiving very speedy treatment for his cancer.

Still, I found Holmes tale both compelling and troubling. So I decided to check a little further. On the Mayo Clinic's website, Shona Holmes is a success story. But it's somewhat different story than all the headlines might have implied. Holmes' "brain tumour" was actually a Rathke's Cleft Cyst on her pituitary gland. To quote an American source, the John Wayne Cancer Center, "Rathke's Cleft Cysts are not true tumors or neoplasms; instead they are benign cysts."

There's no doubt Holmes had a problem that needed treatment, and she was given appointments with the appropriate specialists in Ontario. She chose not to wait the few months to see them. But it's a far cry from the life-or-death picture portrayed by Holmes on the TV ads or by McConnell in his attacks."

The article is no longer available due to the time passed. Here is another, more recent article about her lies:

snip

"In the U.S., Holmes became “the darling of conservatives and the stop-public-health-care movement in the United States,” the Ottawa Citizen reported. “She's testified before Congress, been on Fox TV as well as CNN, and her story is retold on hundreds of right wing blogs.”

Though the AfP ad draws a parallel between Canadian health care and Obamacare, there are many significant differences between the two schemes. The Canadian system — composed of a patchwork of province-run health insurance plans — provides universal coverage, while the Obama plan does not. And while Obamacare relies on private health insurers to cover those who would otherwise not be able to afford it, Canada’s system features government-run health insurers that do not have a mandate to turn a profit."

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/09/04/shona-holmes-koch-brothers-ad_n_1854773.html

[SidDithers]

8. She's against socialized medicine...

but is suing the Ontario government to get them to pay for her treatment at the Mayo Clinic.

Hmmm...

Sid

[haele]

9. Shona Holmes in - diagnosed with Rathke's cleft cyst -

A non-fatal common congenital condition of the pituitary gland that often causes a cyst to press against the optic nerve. She claimed she had a life-threatening brain tumor, and would have died if she hadn't come down to the US and paid to have it removed at the Mayo clinic in Arizona due to the six month delays in the Canadian Medical System to address it.
Now, she's also claiming that the Mayo clinic found she had Cushing's disease, and suggests they wouldn't have caught that because Canada's system is so broken.
She has also apparently claimed to have received death threats - which actually apparently were addressed about her lawn.

http://www.factcheck.org/2009/08/dying-on-a-wait-list/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cancer_victim_hoaxes


Let's see, in the good ol' American health and insurance process, like this Ms. Holmes, while the kidlet has been suffering from almost crippling migraines, cramps, and eye pain for the past seven months (probably related to stress and a couple old concussions) finally saw a neurologist for the preliminary visit two weeks ago.
That was primarily because neurologists "in network" are backed up six to eight months to see "new patients". If she had been with Tricare - the US military and retired vet's single-payer health insurance network benefit - she would have only waited three to four months as a new patient(according to a co-worker who's wife has just started seeing a neurologist and an oncologist through Tricare).

(Thank you AMA, for keeping down the number of doctors in the US to jack up wages and profits.)

She won't have an MRI until later this month. The neurologist won't see her again until the middle of October. If the kidlet needs surgery, it won't be done until late this year or early next.
She did have a preliminary assessment for a brain tumor in when she was able to see her GP in Feb. (after a 1 month wait), and she had been put on a 3 month check-up schedule to insure nothing was changing until she could see the Neurologist. In the mean time, she has been tested for all sorts of issues including Lupis.
But it's still obvious to me and anyone else who isn't wealthy that has to deal with insurance companies to get access to health care that unless we were with one of the government single-payer plans or could just pay a couple dozen thousands of dollars up front, the kidlet would have gotten care quicker and cheaper in Canada than she has here. And when looking at Ms. Holmes symptoms, it's possible the kidlet might have the very same problem Ms. Holmes did. It just will take longer to diagnose and treat - here in the good old Free-Market, Non-Socialized Medicine, Pay-as-you-Go United States of America.

Haele

[Kingofalldems]

10. Figured it was a lie

Actually two lies, the lady's story and the fact the 'Obamacare' is just like the Canadian system.

[PDJane]

2. Oh, that's a pile of meadow muffins.

The Canadian system is government funded and managed, and costs much, much less than the American system. We do have private insurance, but it mostly pays for the things that government doesn't cover, like eyewear and prescriptions and dental care. As such, we actually have better outcomes in a lot of things, and preventive care plays a bigger overall part.

I don't know whether Romney really is that uninformed, or whether he's just playing all the dog whistles he can get his hands on. Or, possibly, both.

[BeyondGeography]

3. They're firmly in yahoo territory now

They know their core product, trickle-down, doesn't sell anymore. So they have a ton of money to sell shit on a stick. They'll be running wingnuttery ads that we can't even imagine right now by the end of this campaign.

[rox63]

5. I wish we had Canadian-style health

which is a single-payor system.

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. Same old bitter nonsense. Rmoney has no health

Plan of his own so this is all he can do.

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. omg.