Why do we need another book about medicare?
What makes this book different?
This 3-minute video explains:
Media Interview:
I’ve done almost all radio during COVID. But here’s one 3-minute interview integrating the book, COVID, and system capacity
Book Reviews:
“Extremely well written…This book should be a wake-up call for [politicians] and for the public that elects them. Every potential patient (that means everyone) and every politician should read it.”
“Shawn Whatley has written an erudite and informative book, When Politics Comes Before Patients, about how the health-care system ended up in this morass and how it can get out. A doctor and former head of the Ontario Medical Association, Whatley’s command of both medicine and management uniquely qualifies him to diagnose what ails our health-care system.”
Podcast
This runs 1:15 hr. Watch it at 2x speed or just listen here (at 2x also if you want!)
“Medicare is NOT a Failure”
Jim Carey, Canadian comedian, spoke about medicare in 2018, on Bill Maher’s show, Real Time.
Carey said,
I grew up in Canada, OK? We have socialized medicine. I’m here to tell you this bulls**t line you get on all the political shows from people is that it’s a failure…in Canada.
It is not a failure in Canada.
Carey went on to tell how much he loved medicare and why you should too. Bernie Sanders posted the clip on his website.
Google socialized medicine or socialism and you will find that:
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- Socialism is back. Over 50% of voters under the age of 38 would prefer to live in a socialist country, according to a 2018 Harris poll.
- People love socialized medicine.
- We should not be afraid of the word socialized.
Given socialism’s new popularity, people often point to Canada’s medicare system as a perfect example of real-life socialism in action.
Does Socialized Medicine work?
Canada has had medicare for 50 years.
Has it lived up to our dreams for it?
Does medicare deliver great outcomes for patients?
Or does medicare promote anti-patient policies that deny care and dignity for patients?
I answer these questions, and more, in my book: When Politics Comes Before Patients – Why and How Canadian Medicare is Failing.
From the Introduction:
At some point you likely will find yourself lying in a hospital bed. There is a good chance your bed will be a firm rubber pad held between two rails and parked along a corridor in a busy emergency department. Messy hairdos will stick out from the stretchers lined up ahead of you. Moans of “nurse!” will echo all around.
But in that moment you will feel relief, not fear. Relief and a fierce, jealous attachment: at least you have a bed! You are out of a packed waiting room and finally able to lie down. Your relief, however, will be tempered by a heightened awareness of how people treat you. Does the nurse comes when she promised? Does the doctor make eye contact and treat you like you matter? When you call for help to empty your bladder, does anyone answer? When someone finally comes, will she say, “You have a diaper,” and walk away? Does your bed have a sheet, a blanket, a pillow?
These questions are not hypothetical. Broken promises, rushed formalities, diapers, and rubber mattresses all happen to real patients in Canada. Few complain or even mention these problems at first. When asked, they report details about diagnosis, tests, and treatment. But when they start talking about their experience, they all use the same word: undignified.
Book Blurbs
“In Canada, socialized medicine has been exalted to the status of a sacrament, and to criticize it, either in theory or in practice, is tantamount to heresy. Dr. Whatley dares to do both, and with such clarity of argument and abundance of evidence, that no reasonable or fair-minded person could fail to be convinced. What Dr. Whatley has demonstrated, in this beautifully written and engaging volume, is that socialized medicine fails to meet the most fundamental moral obligation of health care: to place the patient’s interests above all else.”
Dr. Harley Price, University of Toronto
“Whatley… insists that our focus should be on the patients, the people the system is supposed to serve but whose interests are too easily sacrificed in the name of some pretty but ineffectual or even destructive bureaucratic theory. I have been thinking about the health care system for thirty years yet I found Whatley’s book packed with new insights and courageous thinking. A cure for what ails us.”
Brian Lee Crowley, Managing Director, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute
“When you are getting a diagnosis from your doctor, you want the truth. If you want a truthful diagnosis about our health care system, you must read this book. With precision, wisdom, and verve, Dr. Shawn Whatley has fearlessly dissected the rot that plagues Canadian socialized medicine. Can you handle the truth?”
Bruce Pardy, Professor of Law, Queen’s University
“For someone like me who operates at the other end of the political spectrum, reading Dr. Shawn Whatley’s latest book and its wholesale bludgeoning of the concept of socialized medicine is an uncomfortable experience… You may not agree with his politics, but Dr. Whatley asks uncomfortable questions that deserve serious answers.”
Pat Rich, (Veteran) Medical writer, editor and social media commentator, Former Editor-in-Chief, The Medical Post and Publisher, CMAJ
“Brimming with tangible examples of system failure that make you want to pull your hair out, Dr Whatley’s new book outlines the case for large scale reform of Medicare. It’s a must read for anyone interested in improving healthcare in Canada.”
Christine Van Geyn, Litigation Director, Canadian Constitution Foundation
“Canada’s health care system is sick, and it will only get worse as our nation reels with the fallout from COVID-19 and growing pressure from our nation’s aging population. Canadians need to pay more attention to our underperforming system and the need for reform. Dr. Whatley’s book is a great place to start.”
Colin Craig, President of SecondStreet.org
“For decades, medicare has been dependent upon its unexamined historical myths and a protective anti-Americanism in order to excuse its terrible performance, and Whatley leads the charge at demolishing these myths and attitudes in order to clear the way for change.”
Shane Neilson, Poet, physician, critic, MFA MA PhD CCFP FCFP, Assistant Clinical Professor (Adjunct), McMaster University
“In this caring and clearly-written book, Dr. Whatley performs precision surgery on Canada’s failing public health care.”
Dr. William Gairdner
“We cannot fix Canadian healthcare until we admit that it needs fixing… You need to read this book… before you or someone you love gets sick.”
John Robson, Journalist
It’s available on Amazon:
I would love to hear what you think.
Thanks so much!