Vocal Cord Surgery… Is it really performed free of charge? Also, what are the consequences?

In majority of times, people with voice disorders have been given suggestions by their ENT specialists’ to undergo a vocal cord surgery. 

In countries like Canada and the United Kingdom, the conventional medical care is offered supposedly "free of charge”. Let’s examine it and see if the “free”, is this context, is really free. 

Many times the local people, (those residing in Toronto), came to me seeking the alternative solution to surgical intervention.  When they "discovered" that they had to pay, however reasonable price for non-surgical voice repair services, they somewhat “paused” and then decided first to check back with their ENT specialists, (those whom they had originally seen). Nevertheless, the Doctors are still the Doctors.

They, one more time again, dismissed the alternative non-surgical voice repair treatment and lured these, so to speak, “victims” towards undergoing the surgical procedure. Those people naturally thought that the doctors cannot be bias, as them, as patients, will not “directly” be exchanging the money with the surgeon.

However, it never downed on them that the province of Ontario has the O.H.I.P. In place, (Ontario Health Insurance Plan; supported and paid by tax payers). So each surgical procedure of that sort would cost the O.H.I.P., at least $25,000 to $30,000, which means that the doctors themselves would get paid quite generously for their efforts. That said, I would charge hardly one tenth of that amount and, in the majority of times, would save those people from invasive surgical procedures which could cause scar tissue and even permanent voice loss, not to mention other nasty side effects. 

Also, people from the U.S., sometimes cannot even be seen by a specialist without the patient possessing medical insurance. The insurance in the U.S, especially for self-employed individuals, evidently, is very expensive. No wonder that residing in Canada and running the business for over 30 years, the majority of my Voice Repair clients are actually Americans. 

How ironic is that...?

The moral of it is; the people who live in Canada (Toronto in particular), have no idea how the system works. For some reason, they are not able to understand what they are paying for and what they are getting in return. They are choosing the invasive and often harmful procedures, thinking that they are actually saving some money. 

Obviously, the unawareness of these people, to say the least, is unprecedented. It is quite pathetic, but it is the fact. Have they won anything by looking for a quick and cheap fix?
 

The answer is NO. 

On the contrary, they have lost more than they found, they did not restore their voice or their health for that matter, and they did not do anything different, like learning a new voice/vocal technique, in order to prevent their vocal disorder from happening ever again.