As we set to leave PEI, we wake early to take our hour
walk along the Baywalk in
Summerside, as we have the last two mornings.
Being preseason, our morning walks are ones of solitude and conversation
about our love affair with, and in, PEI.
Do you have a place you go back to again and again? PEI has that feel for us.
Over breakfast of French toast, I ask about Canadian
health care. The health care debate in
the States is reduced to farce by outlandish claims of socialism and
misrepresentation of what the new Affordable Care Act entails. The misinformation is captured by people who
want government out of health care and add, Keep
your hands off my Medicare. Our
breakfast guests are a daughter who has brought her 65 year old mother to PEI
for holidays, a couple from Quebec, and our hosts at the B and B from PEI. The folks seem pleased with their health
care, though it’s the wait that can be discouraging. Needing to see a specialist can take months. The ER, as it is in the US, is the de facto (and
expensive) universal health care for many in need. Delays compromise care, no doubt. Having no health insurance compromises care
even more. Our questions elicit no
passion or condemnation, just the fact that universal health care is a given.
From a link my sister-in-law Judy, a Canadian (see her post script at the end of the blog), sent I learn that the average Canadian primary care doctor
makes $125,000, compared to $186,000 for U.S. doctors. But American
doctors spend an average of $83,000 a year dealing with insurance companies,
compared to the $22,200 which the Ontario, Canada doctors spend on the government
insurer. Canada
rates well on primary care, but struggles on wait times. A 2010 survey found
that 59 percent of respondents waited more than four weeks for an appointment
with a specialist, more than double the U.S. figure.
Having packed earlier for eventually leaving the island
and ending up in Fredericton, New Brunswick with good friends this evening, we
head back to the PEI National Park in Cavendish. Warned that these trails through forests and
fields are best suited for hybrid or mountain bikes, we find only two other
cars in the lot on this Wednesday morning.
That seems to be a theme in pre-season PEI. The 9-10 kilometers of trails are set up in a
figure eight that sends us first along the coast.
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| Cavendish trail map |
The crushed gravel trails lead us to the ocean.
Stopping at the beach of red rocks, we have heard that shoreline erosion
is a serious problem on PEI. It’s easy
to see why.
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| North shoreline erosion |
The coastline of Prince Edward Island
is made up of erodible sedimentary rock, composed mostly of sandstones.
Prince Edward Island is a prime example of where the demand for scenic
waterfront property has led to a battle between the natural forces of erosion
and a determination to stop, or at least slow down, the loss of shorefront
property. Average loss of shoreline on this part of the island
is as much as 5 feet per year. The higher erosion rate on the north and west
coasts are directly attributable to the high degree of exposure to storm conditions. In years to come Prince Edward Island will be
severely affected as the influence of global warming takes hold. Climate
change will bring with it higher tidal fluctuations, increased incidents of
storm surges, and increased erosion along shorelines. The government and land owners of PEI don’t
doubt the reality of global warning.
The bike paths are level with just two places of no more
than a 50 feet stretch when one might need a mountain bike (i.e., There is one
sandy stretch where our tires fishtail and one climb of gravelly rocks that we
manage to climb though our tires slip as we furiously pedal, but that’s all.) Our Trek hybrid bicycles easily handle the
terrain.
It’s a simple one hour ride that turns out to be our
favorite because of the varied, grassy terrain, the ins and outs of the trail,
and only slightly because it is our last day on the island.
Done biking, we drive on country roads and eventually
land at the shopping mall at the base of the Confederation Bridge. There, we reward ourselves with PEI
sweatshirts.
Snapping a few pictures of the Confederation Bridge we
know we’ll be back before the summer crowds come to our island paradise to bike
the 273 kilometre (about 170 miles) Confederation Trail in June of 2013.
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| Confederation Bridge from PEI |
Post script on Canadian health care from our Canadian sister-in-law Judy.
I am categorized as priority #3 out of 4 categories (#1 being urgent). Based on which, I see the urologist in August. If I were priority #1 then I would see the urologist ASAP. So we do have waiting times but they are prioritized by need and I can personally say that I don't mind letting more urgent cases go ahead of me. The idea of paying money to jump the queue gives me a bad feeling in my gut. It's not a perfect system but I like that everyone is treated equally and that no one gets better care because they have more money or worse care because they are poor. The even better thing is that no one gets a bill. Yes, taxes are higher here as a result but giving a basic right like good health to everyone is worth the extra contribution. We are only as healthy as the least healthy among us (that is what a former Minister of Health said about our healthcare system). I believe that.
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