OH, RIGHT, IT’S NOT *ACTUALLY* FREE

Just when I think that maybe socialized medicine isn’t such a bad idea after all, I read something like this:

Today, Saskatchewan spends more on health care than it collects in personal income tax and provincial sales tax. A population that has hovered at just below one million residents eat up 40% of the provincial budget - 2.2 billion in 2001.

And it’s not enough to meet demand. There are no health premiums or user fees - no patient is turned away, no matter how minor the complaint. Some of the elderly are known for their weekly visits to their family doctors for reasons no more serious than loneliness. Cost cutting is extremely difficult - the left leaning NDP governing party is tied inextricably to their unions - and everyone from floor cleaners through hospital cooks are union employees, often earning double the rate of the private sector.

Just the first sentence of the first paragraph was enough to make me cringe. The second paragraph is simply an outrage–and a good example of what we’d likely face in America if we had socialized medicine. But, of course, with all that money being spent on health care, Canadian medicine must be the best in the world, right?

Hospitals across rural Saskatchewan have been closed, forcing residents to travel hours for simple office appointments (phone calls are not billable) and pre-surgical blood tests. Beds are taken offline because of nursing shortages, low pay scales sends Canadian trained doctors to the US or larger population centers, while immigrant doctors take their place - when they can be inticed to do so. There is a chronic shortage of medical specialists.

There are only 3 MRI’s in the province. Many residents drive to neighboring Alberta to pay for private MRI diagnosis, while those in Saskatchewan are operated under the universal system for only a few hours a day to save on costs. The other operational hours are devoted to diagnosing patients under billable conditions - workers compensation, traffic insurance claims, exploding the myth that “two tier” health care is not a fact of medical care in the province.

Currently, the waiting list for an MRI in Saskatchewan is 22 months. Emergency patients go to the front of the line - but these are often emergencies because lack of early diagnosis has allowed their condition to deteriorate to life threatening status. Under the present criteria, obtaining an MRI for a suspected brain tumour is considered elective.

That’s just scary–but is that only because we’re all so used to the concept that saving a life is worth any price you have to pay?

Somebody convince me that socialized medicine would not have the immediate effect of depopulating the rural North.

SPANNING THE DECADE

In recognition of the fact that the 10th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s suicide is approaching, and we’re all likely to be bored silly with bloviations about Cobain’s musical influence, here is a list of ten rock/pop albums at least a decade old which I can still listen to and enjoy any time I want. I’m leaving off some obvious candidates like U2 and R.E.M. The rest of these are in no particular order:

• Lulu, Trip Shakespeare (1991): After the lo-fi shabbiness of Applehead Man, it’s great to hear Trip’s sublime poppiness without Don Henley’s 1974 drum sound. I know it angers the Shakespearistas, but Trip was never better than when Dan Wilson (later of Semisonic) was part of the band.


• Gordon, Barenaked Ladies (1992): I still don’t think the Ladies have made a better album than this. The musicianship is simply stunning.


• Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, The Sundays (1989): The perfect first-day-of-summer album, if you’re prone to fits of depression. The music is upbeat and bubbly enough to make people think you’re happy, but the lyrics are almost too depressing for Jerry Springer.


• Let’s Go Scare Al, Gear Daddies (1990): Back before there was such a thing as alt-country, the Gear Daddies were playing it. We didn’t know what to call it at the time, but it went well with a six-pack.


• Sunshine on Leith, The Proclaimers (1988): You thought it was newer than that just because “500 Miles (I’m Gonna Be) was in Benny and Joon, didn’t you? I can’t wait for my friend Matt to finish his PhD at St. Andrews, so he can come back and tell me if I’m correct in my suspicion that listening to this album is like spending an evening in any random Scottish pub.


• World Machine, Level 42 (1986): They were big in Europe, but apart from “Lessons in Love” and “Something About You,” Level 42 never caught on in the US. Too bad. This homebrew of jazz, funk, and worldbeat just gets better every time I listen to it . . . and I’ve probably listened to it over 500 times by now.


• Hey Babe, Juliana Hatfield (1992): She never fulfilled her potential as The Next Big Thing, and she desperately needs to work with a lyricist, but Juliana Hatfield is a good songwriter and always an entertaining listen.


• Dreamland, Aztec Camera (1993): Somehow, the overarranging Roddy Frame and the overproducing Ryu Sakamoto found an affinity in one another. It’s sometimes hard to hear everything that’s going on when I listen to Dreamland, but the music is as soothing as a bowl of my mom’s chicken soup.


• Of the Heart, Of the Soul, and Of the Cross: The PM Dawn Experience, PM Dawn (1991): I am a wuss. This is the first rap album I could listen to all the way through. I’ve a proclivity for low-key, soothing music, and that’s what this album provides. I don’t think this album gets enough credit for proving that rap didn’t have to be about gangstaz or partying.


• You Wash . . . I’ll Dry, Everyday People (1990): I think I’m the only person who bought this album. Everyday People mixed the London dance sound of the late 80s with the soulfulness of 70s R&B. The single “Headline News” was a minor hit in late 1990; it was a frequent feature of my radio show The Morning After as well.

ALL YOU NEED NOW IS . . .

. . . a hacky sack and a pair of Guess? jeans, and it can be 1988 all over again, now that the Pixies have reunited.

A QUESTION FOR DAVE FRIED

First of all, thanks for the response. Now, what do you think Sartre would say about the role of genetics in existentialism? If even some of our personal tendencies are genetically predetermined, doesn’t that argue that there’s some sense in which essence preceds existence?