Annie
Not So Junior Member
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=FF28F7CC-3048-5C12-00EF373A49620EFB
Site attacks single-payer health care
By: Chris Frates
July 8, 2008 04:30 AM EST
Shona Robertson-Holmes was a mess. She had crushing headaches, insomnia and adrenaline levels so high that she constantly felt as if she had just stepped in front of a speeding bus. And that’s not to mention her rapidly deteriorating eyesight.
She headed to her family doctor, who recommended that she see two specialists.
But Robertson-Holmes is Canadian, and her state-provided health care gave her a wait time of four months to see a neurologist and six months to see an endocrinologist. Unable to get an expedited appointment, and with her eyesight worsening, Robertson-Holmes called the Mayo Clinic in Arizona and went in for tests and a diagnosis within a week.
The doctors there told her she had a four-to-six-week window to have a marble-sized tumor on her pituitary gland removed before her vision loss would be irreversible.
Returning home with the diagnosis, the Ontario native was still unable to expedite the surgery. Three weeks later, she came back to Mayo for brain surgery. And she took out a second mortgage to pay for the $100,000 ordeal. ...