Take Me To Post Comment Form Not surprisingly, health care reform opponents are in a frenzy over the fact that Danny Williams, the Premier of Newfoundland went to Florida in order to have heart surgery.

As usual, facts got lost in the whirlwind of ah-ha's and gotcha's

Mr. Williams was rich enough so that he could afford treatment from the most experienced physician in the world for this particular procedure.

Most Americans do not have access to the physician who treated Mr. Williams, unless they can afford to pay cash.

Nor was there any mention of the many people who go to Toronto's Univerity Health Network for a heart valve procedure originally developed at that institution. For Canadian citizens, access to those surgeons, who are among the best in the world at what they do, is completely free.

But those facts were nowhere to be found in the anti health care blogs. All we got was more of the usual distortion and fiction from the death panel brigades. Here is the full story if anyone is interested.

The bottom line, Premier Williams had a choice. Get low cost or free treatment from a qualified physician, or pay out of pocket for the best in the world. That is exactly the choice health reform seeks to give to all Americans.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/canada/100302/health-care-danny-williams?page=0,0

Williams was suffering from a leaky heart valve. He did not want a sternotomy, which would have required breaking bones to access the valve. For a less invasive procedure with a quicker recovery time, Williams sought out Dr. Joseph Lamelas at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami.

Williams says Lamelas accessed his heart valve through an incision under his arm, a procedure known as the “Miami method.” The procedure is available in Canada, which has its share of world-renowned heart surgeons. But no one has done it anywhere near as often as Lamelas.