This is the kind of story the Public Option is up against. Shona Holmes of Ontario, Canada needed brain surgery, fast. After suffering from crushing headaches and vision problems, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor four years ago. She was told if it wasn’t removed, she could go blind or even die.
“My family doctor at that time tried to get me in to see an endocrinologist and a neurologist,” Holmes recalled. “It was going to be four months for one specialist and six months for the other.” Shona turned to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, borrowed from family and friends along with adding a second mortgage, and paid $100,000 to have the surgery in America.
This is just one story, and although it is useful to Conservatives who are against any kind of Government option for health care, it is not indicative of Canada’s health care system as a whole. Nevertheless, Conservatives will use it to strike fear in the hearts of Americans, whether it is acurate or not. That’ politics. If you want honesty, go to Kindergarten.
This, from the CNN story;
The Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, asserted several times on the Senate floor last month that a government-run health insurance option, which President Obama and Democrats want, could lead to a government-controlled health care system like Canada’s. Watch McConnell talk about Canada’s health care system 
McConnell singled out Kingston General Hospital in Ontario as a prime example of what Americans should be fearful of: staggering delays in treatment.
CNN went to Kingston General and played a DVD for its chief of staff Dr. David Zelt of McConnell slamming the hospital.
Zelt insists McConnell’s numbers — an average of 340 days wait time for knee replacements, 196 days for hip replacements — are an exaggeration.
“I find it very frustrating that someone of that stature would not really have true knowledge of the numbers he is actually quoting on things,” Zelt told us, saying the average wait time for a knee replacement is actually 109 days, and a hip replacement is 91 days. 
Watch Zelt talk about Canada’s health care system »
Canadian Sen. Hugh Segal, whom we met up with at Kingston’s picturesque waterfront, says his “fellow conservatives” to the south are dead wrong about Canada’s health care system.
“The notion that we have some bureaucrat standing next to every doctor between the patient and that doctor is a complete creation, there is no truth to that at all,” Segal said.”
Segal also said, “What you have is a longer life span, better outcomes and about one-third less costs. That’s what you have.”
Also from the CNN story;
Despite Shona Holmes’ horror story about her inability to get timely treatment for a brain tumor, Canadian officials and doctors insist most life-threatening cases are treated quickly.
Toronto’s Doug Wright can attest to that. The 40-year-old father of three young boys found out last month he has cancer — a tumor on his leg.
But he says he never had to wait more than five days to see a specialist or get a test. And from diagnosis to surgery, it will be just over a month.”
The reality of this health care debate is that one side will distort statistics and use every story possible to ignite fear for a government option in health insurance. It’s sickening, when you get right down to the crux of the debate, which shows opponents of universal care and the Public Option to be the largest recipients of health insurer-lobbyist dollars. The health care industry is spending nearly $1.4 Million per day to fight the Public option, and to fight reform. Opponents of the Public Option are reaping huge rewards for protecting the industries that caused this mess.
So now it’s time to do a little dirty fighting of our own. Here’s what’s really going on:
1. Almost every opponent of the Public Option is receiving thousands of dollars from the health insurer industry; fact.
2. The revolving door between Washington elected officials, and cushy, Good-old-boy lobbying jobs is alive and kicking. From the Washington Post;
“Nearly half of the insiders previously worked for the key committees and lawmakers, including Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), debating whether to adopt a public insurance option opposed by major industry groups. At least 10 others have been members of Congress, such as former House majority leaders Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) and Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), both of whom represent a New Jersey pharmaceutical firm.”
3. Those opponents are protecting an industry that frequently collects thousands of dollars in premiums from its victims, only to rescind their coverage for issues as simple as failing to return a signed document within thirty days, or contracting an illness that in some small way, might be tied to a “pre-existing” condition.
4. Health insurers are explicit in their intent, they state regularly that they only want to insure healthy people; you know, people who won’t need to file claims. Otherwise, their “protection” is more fickle than Cosa Nostra. They use entire corporate departments to find ways to deny paying claims.
5. Seventy percent of Americans support the Public Option. Opponents of the Public Option lie, and tell whoever is listening, “The polling is clear; America just doesn’t want a Public Option”.
Conservatives and Blue Dog Democrats are BRIBED servants of the health insurance industry. This is a fact. You recall the old adage, “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and smells like a duck, it’s a duck”. Well, if it looks like bribery, walks like bribery, and smells like bribery, IT’S BRIBERY.
Our elected officials, YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS, are ON THE TAKE for an industry that wants to force you to buy their insurance.
That’s what this debate is about. BRIBERY.
Don’t let them get away with it.
