My experience in Canada’s “free” healthcare.

The term “socialized” medicine, when read plainly, sounds like something that is communal and democratic. Even though the only consensual thing about a democracy is the ability to vote, people still believe that voting creates change when the people voting do not realize that if they do not pay their taxes to support “free” or “socialized” healthcare, they could be sentenced to life in prison.

Free services create the illusion of consent because public opinion believes that that if the the highest form of healthcare is to be found in medical science, then free healthcare is non negotiable for severe illness. One would therefore think a priori(independent of experience) that free healthcare must necessarily entail procedural fairness. For instance, if someone has an autoimmune disease(which is flaring up), they should not have to wait in in the emergency ward with those who there for a minor checkup who are chatting in a jovial tone while you sit there bound in the invisible restraints of tremendous pain.

The person on the receiving end of that relentless suffering was me in 2014 to 2015. I was diagnosed with a severe form of ulcerative colitis called pancolitis.

Don’t be fooled by the medical quacks who downplay its severity by satirizing it as someone needing to carry a toilet around with them. The disease is form of torture which exceeds most forms of external torture used for punishment.

If you think I am being over dramatic, then imagine the following:

• A constant heart beat in your stomach where every pulse creates an explosion of pain. It is as if a knife if being gently poked around inside your bowel.
• The loss of appetite, constant nausea, rapid weight loss, chills, dehydration, disorientation.
• Loss of strength, muscle aches, tremors.
• Loss of bowel control, passing of blood in the stool. The passing of blood of course de-nutrifies the body, thus leading to dangerous mineral deficiencies.
• Not being able to sleep, constantly waking up due to being overheated and then receiving chills one the sweat has dried.

Despite all of this, I was treated in what I would call a rather egalitarian manner. I had to wait in line like everyone else in the “emergency” ward even though I was quite literally the only one in need of quick intervention. This was true for both the Credit Valley and the Halton(Milton) hospital.

These hospitals do not have to worry about competition and thus do not have to worry about reputation and accountability. Qualified immunity keeps their bogus “first come, first serve” prioritization intact.

I will now give a point by point chronology of my experience:

• My illness started in 2013 and I was eventually put into remission by a drug called Asacol. I spent most of my time at the Milton hospital where I was bed ridden for a week. I was able to see a gastroenterologist after my family doctor said they may be booked months in advance. I was able to get in, but it may have been at the expense of someone else with a similar condition.
• 2014: The inevitable occurs and my “flare up” is much worse than before. I am admitted and released numerous times over the course of the month by both Credit Valley and Milton Hospital. The discharge paper of one of the highly “esteemed” doctors stated that I “looked” fine and therefore my condition was not severe enough for me to receive further treatment. If a diagnosis is based on “looks” than we have a diagnostic relativity. Under qualified immunity, all is relative if you have a qualification! Say as you please revered expert-king!
• (2014): I am offered a biologic called Remicade to put me into remission. I was excited by this, until the doctor at the hospital claimed he did not have the authority to administer it without the “proper documents”. After arguing with the “good” doctor for half an hour, he was finally given the green light to administer the biologic. I do not know what was stopping him from administering it to me, but he was an idiot nonetheless.
• (2014): I receive Remicade and I am successfully put into remission, the biologic eases the pain and restores normal bowel movement at the expense of low immunity(which can lead to cancer). Remicade receives top marks for yielding a type of artificial bodily normality in the interim, but because of its invasive nature, it should never be used long term.
• 2015: I use the stability Remicade brought about to explore alternative forms of healthcare in the free market. I find a naturopathic doctor who provides me with vitamin therapy(Meyers cocktail) among other remedies. I paid 100 dollars a month until I myself became interested in holistic nutrition and began disciplining myself.

Based on the totality of my experience, I can conclude that I was treated disgracefully by the socialized medical community both from an attitudinal point of view and from an impersonal procedural point of view. The system allows for mediocrity because there is no competition, and where there is no competition people cannot review and judge the quality of the practitioners they see. Where there is no choice, there is no freedom.

These socialized doctors should at least have the common decency to tell someone who is suffering the limits of what the medical field can offer. Not making any recommendations, in my opinion, violates the Principle of Veracity.

If doctors will not conform to this bioethical principle out of common decency, then they could at least use it when they insist on booting you out of the bed for the purposes of “space”.