The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
You Call This Fair and Balanced?
“Aggressive Fox Bites 2 People, Steals Sweater”–headline, Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.), Aug. 27
She Lost Her Appendix, but She Still Has Gall
Yesterday we noted the curious case of Patricia Pearson, who, in the pages of USA Today, blamed America for her Canadian insurance company’s dilatory attitude about calling an ambulance when her appendix burst in New York. Believe it or not, Pearson’s rale turns out to be even more ridiculous than we had realized.
For one thing, it turns out Canadians do have to pay for ambulance service. The Ontario Ministry of Health lists the charges, which in most cases amount to C$45 (about US$41) a ride, though they can go as high as C$240. That’s for people who live in Canada. “You are responsible for the full cost of any land and/or air ambulance services received if you are a visitor to Ontario from another country” (emphasis in original), the ministry informs you–just as you are if you’re a Canadian visiting the U.S. But if you need an ambulance in Ontario, you’ll probably have an easier time with your American insurance company than Pearson had with her Canadian one.
Would Pearson have been better off had she been north of the border when her appendix burst? Not necessarily. The Calgary Herald reported in June 2007 that “an internal hospital investigation has concluded the high-profile death of a Calgary teen from appendicitis could not have been prevented, although health officials promised Tuesday to make several changes to the medical system following the case”:
But the family of Jordan Johanson–who died in March following a 12-hour wait for surgery on his burst appendix–maintains the young man could have been saved had he received timely treatment.
“A Montreal man, bed-ridden with acute appendicitis, waited six hours for an ambulance Thursday after calling 911 four times, raising concerns the city’s emergency-response service is putting patients at risk,” the Montreal Gazette reported last month:
Even as 57-year-old Jean-Marc Gagné lay begging to be taken to an emergency room, more than half of Montreal’s fleet of ambulances sat idle at hospitals around the city.
Urgences Santé has lots of ambulances but not enough paramedics to fill them, according to the Montreal agency’s chief of operations, Benoît Garneau.
Pearson, by contrast, did not have to wait for an ambulance–only for her Canadian insurance company to promise to pay for it. Had she not been such a cheapskate, she would have received immediate treatment and could have taken up the matter of reimbursement later.
Another item yesterday, about an appendicitis horror story from Britain’s National Health Service, prompted this response from reader Mike Parry:
Hey Taranto–in today’s column, you mentioned the guy in England whose appendix burst, and you said he got two government appendectomies for the price of one. Seems that it would be more accurate to say that he really only got one government appendectomy for the price of two.
Ah, but when the care is free, 1 for 2 and 2 for 1 are mathematically indistinguishable. Such is the beautiful symmetry of socialism.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.
