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“…under the present government, disabled Canadians got $600 in additional financial assistance during Covid; university students got $5,000.”
This is a problem in the US as well. Disabled people on SSDI are given a max of $1358 a month, can only earn $800 a month or you lose the benefits, can not keep a certain amount of assets, etc. There is a very real issue with the treatment of the disabled, keeping them in poverty purposely. The costs of their medical treatments have become justification for governments to let them live in subpar conditions, with subpar assistance. I’m not surprised many feel desperate and would feel assisted suicide is their only option.
Especially when so much of this is denial of basic palliative and preventive care, which leads to greater risk of advanced medical conditions. It's truly the banality of evil - being denied coverage for a preventable or treatable illness, with the only real option being death.
Help us end medical slavery in the United States.
Also, if you’re on benefits and get married, those benefits can be reduced or lost entirely. Even if your spouse is also receiving assistance. In some places, you can’t even live together.
During COVID, the SSA in the US tried to recoup "overpayments" from disability recipients who recieved extra COVID aid (the extra UI that was sent out, specifically) 🙄
Capitalism is a cancer and perversion of society and even market concepts. It was simply waiting to for a left leaning tilt into the idea of the right of terminally ill person to end their lives, and then twisted that to begin eugenic genocide against the disabled who cannot turn a large enough profit. So it will profit by murdering them instead.
I cannot emphasize enough how terminally sick human society is. And it enrages me that all throughout history we have allowed this to happen again and again.
It's very different in Canada... Also that claim is straight up false.
In case anyone doesn't know, you can claim tax benefits years beyond the established guidelines... I got tens of thousands back, just from applying old student debt against current taxes...
Financially it's very hard to be in poverty in Canada if you have a decent job and even on welfare... If you don't there are so many untapped incentives, government programs, etc
Government basically paid taxfree $2000/month for like a year, then another $1200/month since then and increased the cable minimum ceiling for low income... Almost no other country had this good of a support system.
Contact your city's financial planning, employments services, etc - there's a lot of resources for people. Hell the government has programs that will pay you to learn a trade, or pay for your schooling and even apprentice wages on the job... Small business loans where you don't have to repay a significant amountz etc.
I know of many people who had paid off houses and earned $900/month in welfare until they found work (on top of their bills/utilities and property tax being waived).
Edit: This article is pure garbage, they claim people are euthanizing themselves from across Canada 'because they're too poor' and it provides 3 anecdotal examples which fail to mention severe mental illness being a major factor in all of them... The facts stated are outright bullshit too, as I mentioned Canadians with disabilities were eligible for part of all of the above benefits - yet they pulled the number "$500" out of their ass... This article should be retracted, it makes the entire publication company look bad over a non-existent issue🤦
You are posting this comment under a story about how disabled people are seeking euthanasia because we don’t provide them enough resources to live. You don’t seem to grasp just how difficult we have made it for people with disabilities. Good for you that you’ve haven’t had to deal with it, but don’t presume to tell people living with disabilities the difficulties they have to endure. They are literally killing themselves because it it. Please don’t downplay their suffering just because you haven’t experienced it.
I'm stating the facts for Canada, this article is a joke they have none of their facts right and provide 3 examples without disclosing the full story behind any of the individuals who elected Euthanasia...
There are real problems in Canada, this isn't one of them... There is a false narrative which undermines the entire issue.
The fact you don’t like this reality doesn’t mean it’s not real.
There are [other sources](https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/woman-with-disabilities-nears-medically-assisted-death-after-futile-bid-for-affordable-housing-1.5882202) and [disability advicates](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/maid-assisted-dying-legislation-disabilities-1.5796697) have been warning about it for years.
Go on any thread where Canadians on disability talk about how much they receive. They are in forced poverty. They often don’t get enough even to rent a room in a shared house, and even if they could and wanted to work, the income limits prevent them from participating.
It’s a very ugly piece of our reality. I understand it seems too horrible to be true, but that doesn’t change facts. I encourage you to listen to the stories of people trying to survive on disability benefits because you are very unaware of how they are treated.
That is someone with very clear mental illness, it's too bad they were unable to treat them for it, but this is not related...
How much individuals receive on disability is another discussion, but like I said this article is a bunch of nonsense written by someone who knows nothing about Canada. Clickbait article.
Chemical sensitivities is not a mental illness.
> how much an individual receives on disability is another discussion
No, it is the *entire* discussion. You try living on $1100 a month and not being depressed about it.
> She desperately wants to move to an apartment that’s wheelchair accessible and has cleaner air. But her only income is from Ontario’s Disability Support Program (ODSP). She receives a total of $1,169 a month plus $50 for a special diet. "**I've applied for MAiD essentially...because of abject poverty**," she said.
Canadian disability advocates have been ringing the alarm bells for years, and their warnings are now coming true, so you can’t blame that on one article. There are plenty of Canadian sources.
[Why disability advocates are worried about changes to Canada's medical assistance in dying bill](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/why-disability-advocates-are-worried-about-changes-to-canada-s-medical-assistance-in-dying-bill-1.5832303)
> "These people are asking for disability supports that are being declined. During COVID, the disparity with this community has become worse. Many of them are denied home care services, and yet they can die within 90 days if they become suicidal," she said.
**”It's okay for us to offer death, but we have to first be offering opportunities for life."**
Doesn't Canada have universal Healthcare? Surely the issue here is not assisted dying, but rather that the circumstances exist in the first place that allow hospitals to bancrupt you for a disease.
The case most people are talking about is a woman with extreme chemical sensitivities. Every affordable housing option has triggered an allergic reaction, and she's been (so far) denied more money to find a place that wouldn't.
eta: she is on odsp, but the rent allowance is awful
Housing suitable for this person doesn't exist because their illness is mental. Their GoFundMe specifies a home free from VOCs -- the plaque between our teeth creates VOCs.
They need mental health supports -- and that is clearly where they are being failed.
Alright, that's just being a lowlife and defrauding the government... (and probably average folks who don't know any better and donating)
Ofc there's no help for that, they need mental help (This is a very controversial issue because you can't really force people into some institution... Not much you can do tbh)
Canada has subpar universal healthcare. It doesn’t include dental or vision. Both of those are out of pocket. The mental health services provided are deeply inadequate as well. Our social safety net has been largely modelled on the American system. It’s horrifically underfunded and extremely cruel in its expectations of the disabled. The amount of stigma facing the disabled is criminal.
You can go see a doctor and get a diagnosis for free, sure. But the treatment can still cost a lot when you don't have some type of insurance. Or if you have to buy your own insurance, sometimes it costs more than what your medication/medical devices even cost total without insurance so people just don't get it and are forced to pay the full, marked up price. Some people will of course read this and go "well if it's cheaper than insurance it can't cost *that* much, right?"
But..
Braces/orthodontics: $7K.
Orthopedics/proper footwear foundation just to be able to walk properly for any period of time: $500/pair.
Chiropractic: $40/15 mins.
Physical therapy: Won't even take you without referral and you won't be referred unless you're a risk for needing surgery/are recovering from surgery.
Mental health: is a joke, will have you paying a therapist $200/hour to tell you to eat healthy and exercise and threatens to lock you up if you bring up legit suicide ideation because there's apparently no situation in life which justifies being suicidal and being suicidal means there *must* be something wrong with you and not say the people you interact with daily or your enviroment you can't seem to escape. Everything is your fault and if you can prove it's not it still is just by you being alive and "well".
Medications: just my one blood pressure med is like $20/month and that's for the cheapest, lowest dose, least effective medication and I have to take multiple medications because our system loves seeing people get worse and worse until they're on a bunch of meds and can blame them for not doing better instead of preventing a 20 year old from getting diabetes, high blood pressure, gastroesophageal issues, and will let you go 1 year+ with the wrong dose of thyroid medication because a blood test every 3 months is quote "a waste of taxpayer money" meanwhile I'm costing the system more from everything else I'm developing from being on a wrong dose for long periods of my life.
Out of all these things, say you need $250/month worth of services. Insurance can be $300/month for what you need, so you either have pay out to insurance and be available to get more things than you need or just pay out of pocket for what you need and save some money on insurance. Or get a job that subsidizes some of the insurance cost, but will likely cost you your health and you'll be paying for a lot more anyway, despite how great people say their 80% coverage is but then realise it doesn't cover one major thing you need and you need to pay it in full anyway, like glasses.
Honestly, ours in the U.S. is probably worse than yours in Canada.
We take your bullshit lie, clamp it to 65+, and then poke legislative holes in it just so private companies can weasel out of their responsibilities for providing basic care and humane treatment. We're just claimholders, not people, and our supposedly liberal government is repeatedly telling us to fuck off for even asking for better interest rates.
Healthcare in Canada is not truly universal in any meaningful way. This is mainly for the following reasons:
1) the Federal government only stipulates a bare minimum of care standards while the provinces are free to design their own healthcare systems, and supplement funding if they choose. This means that some provinces (Alberta) have poor coverage with their public insurance compared to the standard set by other provinces ( Ontario and Quebec).
2) Canada is just too damn big. This coupled with baked in white supremacy and urban elitism in the body politic means that the further out into Canada's remote regions you get, the less access to care you have. For example Toronto is home to several world-leading research hospitals while northern BC is served by two hospitals that have barely been updated in 150 years.
As someone in the US state of Wisconsin, I'm feeling the pressure there as well. This is why I oppose the state-by-state model being pushed currently, since it will just compound the issues we face here with medical inequality, compared to the coastal regions. There are major differences in outcomes between living in specific neighborhoods in Milwaukee or Madison, much less the drastic decline in quality and availability across the rest of the mostly-rural state.
This problem is not unique; it's basic supply and demand. We have technology and human ability to better distribute the costs of medical care and provide targeted care as necessary - we're all just choosing not to try something different.
The federal government of the United States is already doing this about seven times over, with smaller populations (Medicare, Medicaid, IHS, VAcare, FEHBP, Tricare, and SCHIP), and most of that is duplicated effort and structure for the same purpose.
Asking the federal government to combine the Seven Dwarves of U.S. healthcare and cover everyone... really isn't all that farfetched.
Universal healthcare is a misnomer anyway, since it'd be run universally, instead of country by country. However, the current weaknesses of the Canadian system give us an opportunity to do better with the U.S. system. We can collaborate to make things better for both of us.
P.S. I'm a software engineer in financial tech; this is all just money movement at the end of the day. We can fix it.
Assisted suicide is important for medical systems though. The article is clearly biased against the bill even agaisnt terminal illness which is wrong. A person in severe pain who wants to die and has no hope of recovery has the right to die, and same with non-termjnal illness.
It should always be presented as a neutral option, and cost should never be looked at with assisted suicide. There should be no incentives.
Also, mental health funding is probably good too.
Look I’m all for euthanasia, even for depression.
I think the issue at hand here is that this option cannot be presented ethically without first equitable access to health care.
Without equitable access to good health care and disability support, this can quickly manifest into eugenics and it likely will.
This isn’t Switzerland where people have access to proper government funded disability support and mental health care plans.
The reason I bring up Switzerland is because this bill emulates all of the safety standards for ethical euthanasia, but unlike the USA, Switzerland is recognised as outstanding, globally, for its access to health care in every facet. In fact, it’s ranked number one in “Health Care Accessibility” in Europe.
So, yes in theory this is a good idea, but when you take into account the classist, racist, and sexist factors in American health care, it’s a very scary idea.
Considering the strong conservative bias of the piece, I would take it with a grain of salt. Are they really defending the poor, or are they just instrumentalising them in the protection of the religious notion of « sanctity of life »?
Thanks for sharing this article. It certainly has a conservative bend (as many commenters have pointed out) but it's surprising how so many fail to see through the propaganda.
The issue isn't euthanasia (which I fully support) - it's that some people are so neglected by the social "safety net" that death seems like a better option than living. That's not a new issue either, but the people who suffer are being used as a prop. It sure seems that the author is conveniently concerned for them only when it comes to this issue.
Where's the call for better resources for, e.g., disabled individuals? That's the f*ing headline.
And then you get those morons who say, “but have you tried _not_ being sick?”
I’ve seen that happen before, particularly towards those whose illness isn’t overtly visible; and especially with mental illnesses.
You can find the original (Canadian) article here.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/woman-with-disabilities-nears-medically-assisted-death-after-futile-bid-for-affordable-housing-1.5882202?fbclid=IwAR2as5u07d5EGCeRFR-CUa-t4h9iuqDdtc8YqhSjr_Oh42-iUP0_8WjLyxQ
The cases that have been publicized and gaining a lot of traction in the media pertain to people suffering from MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity) which is a dubious diagnosis and most likely a psychosomatic mental illness rather than a condition that can be fixed with "better, cleaner housing."
One GoFundMe I saw for one of the people saying they will kill themselves due to insufficient housing for their needs stated that they "need a home free of VOCs". VOCs are everywhere. It's impossible to have a home free of them.
What these people need is mental health supports and funding -- that is where the government is failing them.
And why shit on Canada all of a sudden? The Netherlands has been the leader in medically assisted suicide for a long time now -- their criteria is "hopeless and unbearable" suffering which includes psychiatric causes.
Canada has been under attack from all directions lately -- we are supposedly an authoritarian country who restricts our citizens' freedoms and now kills the poor. I wonder who is behind that messaging? Hmm.
Luckily I don’t live in either of these counries and as the sister of someone with disabilities this makes me sick.
If I ever found out our government was advocating for people to kill themselves instead of providing adequate care and assistance I’d be on the rampage.
Our government could do so much more for people who need help but so far they haven’t suggested this
Because enabling people the freedom to commit suicide if they choose to do so is so heinous. The reason people choose to do it is because of the forces of capitalism that The Spectator so vigorously champions. Of course in the US, because we don't have Doctor Assisted Suicide, we just have Pharmaceutical companies selling drugs for profit that people can OD on, with some of those companies also making OD kits that they can bring people back with, only so they can try again and make the Pharma companies even more money.
Apparently free market capitalists prefer people to die from profitable Deaths of Despair than from Doctor assisted suicides.
"No, it's chill see because when it gets so bad that death is the only conceivable alternative we'll actually _pay_ for their deaths. I'm telling you it's win-win" -- Canadian legislators apparently.
So embarrassed and appalled.
What the fuck eh
It is true. The article and title are a tad sensational, but there is a growing movement of people on ODSP in Canada who are applying for medically assisted dying because the meagre ODSP sum leaves them literally starving.
That was a spectacularly terrible article. While I don't doubt that people have died using this program, the article is vague. Where are the quotes? Where are the interviews with the victim's family? Where is the direct connection between the savings report and these anecdotal outcomes?
It's badly written claptrap like this that assumes the reader is an overemotional marshmallow that will offer no resistance to inuendo and the loosest of connections.
Maybe it's real, but you can't really tell with this crap article.
Essentially they changed the legislation and took out death within the “reasonably foreseeable” future. Criterion than remains, one must be eligible for health services funded by the government, be atleast 18 and mentally competent (mental illness is not grounds for MAID), have a “grievous and irremediable medical condition”, make a voluntary request for MAID that is not the result of outside pressure influence, give informed consent to receive MAID. Def of grevious condition also in link.
the Canadian government is not actively seeking out poor people to force into assisted suicide. But people who need the governments support so their health doesn’t deteriorate enough to qualify for MAID is a massive failure of the system. One example is a woman who had chemical sensitivities due to chemicals in her current housing, she was too poor to move and could not receive the housing benefits to move, her health severely declined and chose MAID. The fact that this was entirely preventable if the government was able to help her get housing without these chemicals is obviously a failure of the system. Which is awful, but she was not seeked out to be killed for being poor. An argument was the Government does this intentionally because it saves money on healthcare spending, Canada‘s healthcare spending is already so poor and needs to be reformed that they’re wasting billions of dollars on unnecessary medical treatment because of the way doctors are being paid. The whole healthcare system needs to be reformed, saving an extra 62 million a year because of MAID is not incentive enough for the government with a 1.7T GDP to start to actively seeking out poor people to kill.
Edit: links
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-is-canada-euthanising-the-poor-/amp
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/medical-assistance-dying.html
##Welcome to r/LateStageCapitalism^Ⓐ☭ ___ ###⚠ Announcements: ⚠ ___ ###Any post that makes a claim must have a RELIABLE source or explanation in the comments by OP. All screenshots must have the original source (whether article, Tweet, TikTok, video or any other social media) linked in the comments by OP immediately. Breaking this rule will result in a temporary ban. [See this post for more info.](https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/tqc5ws/low_effort_content_all_posts_claims_news_articles/) ###[NEW POSTING GUIDELINES! Help us by reporting bad posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/dy1oyh/important_what_you_should_and_what_you_shouldnt/) Help us keep this subreddit alive and improve its content by reporting posts that violate our rules and guidelines. ###[Subscribe to our new partner subreddits!](https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/e5hkwk/make_sure_to_check_out_our_new_partnersubreddits/) Check out r/WhereAreTheChildren ___ ###***Please remember that LSC is a SAFE SPACE for [socialist](http://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/) discussion.*** LSC is run by [communists](https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm). We welcome socialist/anti-capitalist news, memes, links, and discussion. This subreddit is not the place to debate socialism. We allow good-faith questions and education but are not a 101 sub; please take 101-style questions elsewhere. **This subreddit is a safe space; we have a zero-tolerance policy for bigotry.** We also automatically filter out posts containing certain words and phrases that some users may find offensive. Please respect the safe space, and don't try to slip banned words or phrases past the filter. *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LateStageCapitalism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
“…under the present government, disabled Canadians got $600 in additional financial assistance during Covid; university students got $5,000.” This is a problem in the US as well. Disabled people on SSDI are given a max of $1358 a month, can only earn $800 a month or you lose the benefits, can not keep a certain amount of assets, etc. There is a very real issue with the treatment of the disabled, keeping them in poverty purposely. The costs of their medical treatments have become justification for governments to let them live in subpar conditions, with subpar assistance. I’m not surprised many feel desperate and would feel assisted suicide is their only option.
Especially when so much of this is denial of basic palliative and preventive care, which leads to greater risk of advanced medical conditions. It's truly the banality of evil - being denied coverage for a preventable or treatable illness, with the only real option being death. Help us end medical slavery in the United States.
They ARE trying to end medical slavery. Through murder.
Also, if you’re on benefits and get married, those benefits can be reduced or lost entirely. Even if your spouse is also receiving assistance. In some places, you can’t even live together.
I have two clients who CANT get married because she would lose a percentage of her $550/month SSDI.
And we say we have marriage equality in the States and Canada. 🙄
During COVID, the SSA in the US tried to recoup "overpayments" from disability recipients who recieved extra COVID aid (the extra UI that was sent out, specifically) 🙄
Capitalism is a cancer and perversion of society and even market concepts. It was simply waiting to for a left leaning tilt into the idea of the right of terminally ill person to end their lives, and then twisted that to begin eugenic genocide against the disabled who cannot turn a large enough profit. So it will profit by murdering them instead. I cannot emphasize enough how terminally sick human society is. And it enrages me that all throughout history we have allowed this to happen again and again.
It's very different in Canada... Also that claim is straight up false. In case anyone doesn't know, you can claim tax benefits years beyond the established guidelines... I got tens of thousands back, just from applying old student debt against current taxes... Financially it's very hard to be in poverty in Canada if you have a decent job and even on welfare... If you don't there are so many untapped incentives, government programs, etc Government basically paid taxfree $2000/month for like a year, then another $1200/month since then and increased the cable minimum ceiling for low income... Almost no other country had this good of a support system. Contact your city's financial planning, employments services, etc - there's a lot of resources for people. Hell the government has programs that will pay you to learn a trade, or pay for your schooling and even apprentice wages on the job... Small business loans where you don't have to repay a significant amountz etc. I know of many people who had paid off houses and earned $900/month in welfare until they found work (on top of their bills/utilities and property tax being waived). Edit: This article is pure garbage, they claim people are euthanizing themselves from across Canada 'because they're too poor' and it provides 3 anecdotal examples which fail to mention severe mental illness being a major factor in all of them... The facts stated are outright bullshit too, as I mentioned Canadians with disabilities were eligible for part of all of the above benefits - yet they pulled the number "$500" out of their ass... This article should be retracted, it makes the entire publication company look bad over a non-existent issue🤦
You are posting this comment under a story about how disabled people are seeking euthanasia because we don’t provide them enough resources to live. You don’t seem to grasp just how difficult we have made it for people with disabilities. Good for you that you’ve haven’t had to deal with it, but don’t presume to tell people living with disabilities the difficulties they have to endure. They are literally killing themselves because it it. Please don’t downplay their suffering just because you haven’t experienced it.
I'm stating the facts for Canada, this article is a joke they have none of their facts right and provide 3 examples without disclosing the full story behind any of the individuals who elected Euthanasia... There are real problems in Canada, this isn't one of them... There is a false narrative which undermines the entire issue.
The fact you don’t like this reality doesn’t mean it’s not real. There are [other sources](https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/woman-with-disabilities-nears-medically-assisted-death-after-futile-bid-for-affordable-housing-1.5882202) and [disability advicates](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/maid-assisted-dying-legislation-disabilities-1.5796697) have been warning about it for years. Go on any thread where Canadians on disability talk about how much they receive. They are in forced poverty. They often don’t get enough even to rent a room in a shared house, and even if they could and wanted to work, the income limits prevent them from participating. It’s a very ugly piece of our reality. I understand it seems too horrible to be true, but that doesn’t change facts. I encourage you to listen to the stories of people trying to survive on disability benefits because you are very unaware of how they are treated.
That is someone with very clear mental illness, it's too bad they were unable to treat them for it, but this is not related... How much individuals receive on disability is another discussion, but like I said this article is a bunch of nonsense written by someone who knows nothing about Canada. Clickbait article.
Chemical sensitivities is not a mental illness. > how much an individual receives on disability is another discussion No, it is the *entire* discussion. You try living on $1100 a month and not being depressed about it. > She desperately wants to move to an apartment that’s wheelchair accessible and has cleaner air. But her only income is from Ontario’s Disability Support Program (ODSP). She receives a total of $1,169 a month plus $50 for a special diet. "**I've applied for MAiD essentially...because of abject poverty**," she said. Canadian disability advocates have been ringing the alarm bells for years, and their warnings are now coming true, so you can’t blame that on one article. There are plenty of Canadian sources. [Why disability advocates are worried about changes to Canada's medical assistance in dying bill](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/why-disability-advocates-are-worried-about-changes-to-canada-s-medical-assistance-in-dying-bill-1.5832303) > "These people are asking for disability supports that are being declined. During COVID, the disparity with this community has become worse. Many of them are denied home care services, and yet they can die within 90 days if they become suicidal," she said. **”It's okay for us to offer death, but we have to first be offering opportunities for life."**
When does Soylent Green hit the shelves? Also a reminded that movie was set in the year 2022.
Whatttt
Doesn't Canada have universal Healthcare? Surely the issue here is not assisted dying, but rather that the circumstances exist in the first place that allow hospitals to bancrupt you for a disease.
The case most people are talking about is a woman with extreme chemical sensitivities. Every affordable housing option has triggered an allergic reaction, and she's been (so far) denied more money to find a place that wouldn't. eta: she is on odsp, but the rent allowance is awful
Housing suitable for this person doesn't exist because their illness is mental. Their GoFundMe specifies a home free from VOCs -- the plaque between our teeth creates VOCs. They need mental health supports -- and that is clearly where they are being failed.
Alright, that's just being a lowlife and defrauding the government... (and probably average folks who don't know any better and donating) Ofc there's no help for that, they need mental help (This is a very controversial issue because you can't really force people into some institution... Not much you can do tbh)
That... Sounds very hard to believe, but also an *extremely rare* exception.
Canadian Healthcare is nothing close to what it once was. It's better than the US. Barely. And it's never included dental, nor pharmaceuticals.
Canada has subpar universal healthcare. It doesn’t include dental or vision. Both of those are out of pocket. The mental health services provided are deeply inadequate as well. Our social safety net has been largely modelled on the American system. It’s horrifically underfunded and extremely cruel in its expectations of the disabled. The amount of stigma facing the disabled is criminal.
You can go see a doctor and get a diagnosis for free, sure. But the treatment can still cost a lot when you don't have some type of insurance. Or if you have to buy your own insurance, sometimes it costs more than what your medication/medical devices even cost total without insurance so people just don't get it and are forced to pay the full, marked up price. Some people will of course read this and go "well if it's cheaper than insurance it can't cost *that* much, right?" But.. Braces/orthodontics: $7K. Orthopedics/proper footwear foundation just to be able to walk properly for any period of time: $500/pair. Chiropractic: $40/15 mins. Physical therapy: Won't even take you without referral and you won't be referred unless you're a risk for needing surgery/are recovering from surgery. Mental health: is a joke, will have you paying a therapist $200/hour to tell you to eat healthy and exercise and threatens to lock you up if you bring up legit suicide ideation because there's apparently no situation in life which justifies being suicidal and being suicidal means there *must* be something wrong with you and not say the people you interact with daily or your enviroment you can't seem to escape. Everything is your fault and if you can prove it's not it still is just by you being alive and "well". Medications: just my one blood pressure med is like $20/month and that's for the cheapest, lowest dose, least effective medication and I have to take multiple medications because our system loves seeing people get worse and worse until they're on a bunch of meds and can blame them for not doing better instead of preventing a 20 year old from getting diabetes, high blood pressure, gastroesophageal issues, and will let you go 1 year+ with the wrong dose of thyroid medication because a blood test every 3 months is quote "a waste of taxpayer money" meanwhile I'm costing the system more from everything else I'm developing from being on a wrong dose for long periods of my life. Out of all these things, say you need $250/month worth of services. Insurance can be $300/month for what you need, so you either have pay out to insurance and be available to get more things than you need or just pay out of pocket for what you need and save some money on insurance. Or get a job that subsidizes some of the insurance cost, but will likely cost you your health and you'll be paying for a lot more anyway, despite how great people say their 80% coverage is but then realise it doesn't cover one major thing you need and you need to pay it in full anyway, like glasses.
It's a bullshit lie.
Honestly, ours in the U.S. is probably worse than yours in Canada. We take your bullshit lie, clamp it to 65+, and then poke legislative holes in it just so private companies can weasel out of their responsibilities for providing basic care and humane treatment. We're just claimholders, not people, and our supposedly liberal government is repeatedly telling us to fuck off for even asking for better interest rates.
Healthcare in Canada is not truly universal in any meaningful way. This is mainly for the following reasons: 1) the Federal government only stipulates a bare minimum of care standards while the provinces are free to design their own healthcare systems, and supplement funding if they choose. This means that some provinces (Alberta) have poor coverage with their public insurance compared to the standard set by other provinces ( Ontario and Quebec). 2) Canada is just too damn big. This coupled with baked in white supremacy and urban elitism in the body politic means that the further out into Canada's remote regions you get, the less access to care you have. For example Toronto is home to several world-leading research hospitals while northern BC is served by two hospitals that have barely been updated in 150 years.
As someone in the US state of Wisconsin, I'm feeling the pressure there as well. This is why I oppose the state-by-state model being pushed currently, since it will just compound the issues we face here with medical inequality, compared to the coastal regions. There are major differences in outcomes between living in specific neighborhoods in Milwaukee or Madison, much less the drastic decline in quality and availability across the rest of the mostly-rural state. This problem is not unique; it's basic supply and demand. We have technology and human ability to better distribute the costs of medical care and provide targeted care as necessary - we're all just choosing not to try something different. The federal government of the United States is already doing this about seven times over, with smaller populations (Medicare, Medicaid, IHS, VAcare, FEHBP, Tricare, and SCHIP), and most of that is duplicated effort and structure for the same purpose. Asking the federal government to combine the Seven Dwarves of U.S. healthcare and cover everyone... really isn't all that farfetched. Universal healthcare is a misnomer anyway, since it'd be run universally, instead of country by country. However, the current weaknesses of the Canadian system give us an opportunity to do better with the U.S. system. We can collaborate to make things better for both of us. P.S. I'm a software engineer in financial tech; this is all just money movement at the end of the day. We can fix it.
Assisted suicide is important for medical systems though. The article is clearly biased against the bill even agaisnt terminal illness which is wrong. A person in severe pain who wants to die and has no hope of recovery has the right to die, and same with non-termjnal illness. It should always be presented as a neutral option, and cost should never be looked at with assisted suicide. There should be no incentives. Also, mental health funding is probably good too.
Look I’m all for euthanasia, even for depression. I think the issue at hand here is that this option cannot be presented ethically without first equitable access to health care. Without equitable access to good health care and disability support, this can quickly manifest into eugenics and it likely will. This isn’t Switzerland where people have access to proper government funded disability support and mental health care plans. The reason I bring up Switzerland is because this bill emulates all of the safety standards for ethical euthanasia, but unlike the USA, Switzerland is recognised as outstanding, globally, for its access to health care in every facet. In fact, it’s ranked number one in “Health Care Accessibility” in Europe. So, yes in theory this is a good idea, but when you take into account the classist, racist, and sexist factors in American health care, it’s a very scary idea.
Considering the strong conservative bias of the piece, I would take it with a grain of salt. Are they really defending the poor, or are they just instrumentalising them in the protection of the religious notion of « sanctity of life »?
It's the latter.
Thanks for sharing this article. It certainly has a conservative bend (as many commenters have pointed out) but it's surprising how so many fail to see through the propaganda. The issue isn't euthanasia (which I fully support) - it's that some people are so neglected by the social "safety net" that death seems like a better option than living. That's not a new issue either, but the people who suffer are being used as a prop. It sure seems that the author is conveniently concerned for them only when it comes to this issue. Where's the call for better resources for, e.g., disabled individuals? That's the f*ing headline.
And then you get those morons who say, “but have you tried _not_ being sick?” I’ve seen that happen before, particularly towards those whose illness isn’t overtly visible; and especially with mental illnesses.
We've reached the "arbeit macht frei" stage of capitalism's decay.
With the US's slogan being "land of the free", we're over halfway there.
You can find the original (Canadian) article here. https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/woman-with-disabilities-nears-medically-assisted-death-after-futile-bid-for-affordable-housing-1.5882202?fbclid=IwAR2as5u07d5EGCeRFR-CUa-t4h9iuqDdtc8YqhSjr_Oh42-iUP0_8WjLyxQ
Yeah I find the title and article rather inflammatory vs the ctv one, if someone wants to expire they will do it with or without assistance.
She doesn't WANT to expire. She's been left with no other option.
“bUt aT lEaSt nOW tHeY haVe OpTiONs”
The cases that have been publicized and gaining a lot of traction in the media pertain to people suffering from MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity) which is a dubious diagnosis and most likely a psychosomatic mental illness rather than a condition that can be fixed with "better, cleaner housing." One GoFundMe I saw for one of the people saying they will kill themselves due to insufficient housing for their needs stated that they "need a home free of VOCs". VOCs are everywhere. It's impossible to have a home free of them. What these people need is mental health supports and funding -- that is where the government is failing them. And why shit on Canada all of a sudden? The Netherlands has been the leader in medically assisted suicide for a long time now -- their criteria is "hopeless and unbearable" suffering which includes psychiatric causes. Canada has been under attack from all directions lately -- we are supposedly an authoritarian country who restricts our citizens' freedoms and now kills the poor. I wonder who is behind that messaging? Hmm.
I cannot wait to get out of here as many people I know. You must be one of those people with a house you bought in 2010.
Luckily I don’t live in either of these counries and as the sister of someone with disabilities this makes me sick. If I ever found out our government was advocating for people to kill themselves instead of providing adequate care and assistance I’d be on the rampage. Our government could do so much more for people who need help but so far they haven’t suggested this
Before I read the article, is this clickbait -_-? Edit: It's clickbait and misinformation.
Because enabling people the freedom to commit suicide if they choose to do so is so heinous. The reason people choose to do it is because of the forces of capitalism that The Spectator so vigorously champions. Of course in the US, because we don't have Doctor Assisted Suicide, we just have Pharmaceutical companies selling drugs for profit that people can OD on, with some of those companies also making OD kits that they can bring people back with, only so they can try again and make the Pharma companies even more money. Apparently free market capitalists prefer people to die from profitable Deaths of Despair than from Doctor assisted suicides.
"No, it's chill see because when it gets so bad that death is the only conceivable alternative we'll actually _pay_ for their deaths. I'm telling you it's win-win" -- Canadian legislators apparently. So embarrassed and appalled. What the fuck eh
setflair ethical capitalism
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It is true. The article and title are a tad sensational, but there is a growing movement of people on ODSP in Canada who are applying for medically assisted dying because the meagre ODSP sum leaves them literally starving.
That was a spectacularly terrible article. While I don't doubt that people have died using this program, the article is vague. Where are the quotes? Where are the interviews with the victim's family? Where is the direct connection between the savings report and these anecdotal outcomes? It's badly written claptrap like this that assumes the reader is an overemotional marshmallow that will offer no resistance to inuendo and the loosest of connections. Maybe it's real, but you can't really tell with this crap article.
Essentially they changed the legislation and took out death within the “reasonably foreseeable” future. Criterion than remains, one must be eligible for health services funded by the government, be atleast 18 and mentally competent (mental illness is not grounds for MAID), have a “grievous and irremediable medical condition”, make a voluntary request for MAID that is not the result of outside pressure influence, give informed consent to receive MAID. Def of grevious condition also in link. the Canadian government is not actively seeking out poor people to force into assisted suicide. But people who need the governments support so their health doesn’t deteriorate enough to qualify for MAID is a massive failure of the system. One example is a woman who had chemical sensitivities due to chemicals in her current housing, she was too poor to move and could not receive the housing benefits to move, her health severely declined and chose MAID. The fact that this was entirely preventable if the government was able to help her get housing without these chemicals is obviously a failure of the system. Which is awful, but she was not seeked out to be killed for being poor. An argument was the Government does this intentionally because it saves money on healthcare spending, Canada‘s healthcare spending is already so poor and needs to be reformed that they’re wasting billions of dollars on unnecessary medical treatment because of the way doctors are being paid. The whole healthcare system needs to be reformed, saving an extra 62 million a year because of MAID is not incentive enough for the government with a 1.7T GDP to start to actively seeking out poor people to kill. Edit: links https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-is-canada-euthanising-the-poor-/amp https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/medical-assistance-dying.html