I'm too old to fight wars, and you couldn't defend your position if your life depended on it. Go ahead #juan, compare apples and apples and let's see how great your system is functioning.
What's right about our health-care system
- Thread starter #juan
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I'm too old to fight wars, and you couldn't defend your position if your life depended on it. Go ahead #juan, compare apples and apples and let's see how great your system is functioning.
News flash! A family in Canada making less than $24,000 would not pay premiums. Neither would they pay anywhere near the Tax money you are speaking of nor would they buy all the "add ons" you are speaking of. So if you now can "afford" a $400 a month premium you must be way better off than you were in the US making $24,000.
We don't have volunteers to do things like Data entry is true. Probably because of the sensitive nature of the information they would come in contact with.
Any card with a "Chip" in it would be subject to theft in the same way that Credit Cards are. Again, sensitive data in the wrong hands or things like illegal immigrants using someone elses coverage.
My husband uses the system probably as much as anyone. He sees a Doctor at least twice a month. He has seen a Specialist of some sort at least once every year. He has had surgeries, Cat scans, MRIs and a mirade of tests. Wait times have never been as long as some seem to experience. We wonder if it depends on your Doctor and how much he puts into getting you placed.
We have relatives in the US who live on about $42,000 per years and they pay almost $500 be month for health coverage. He has had one Heart problem, so they can not be without coverage. They still drive Emergency cases from one hospital to another if they have no means of paying the bill.
Neither did she. When she was making $24K, it was free. She was talking about what she would pay now when her household income is higher.
Apples to apples?
First of all, in Canada everyone is covered. In the U.S. they are not. In Canada, medical care does not depend on the ability to pay. In Canada, doctors, not accountants decide on your treatment. Wait times for some specialists will eventually be fixed. More and more hip and knee replacement surgeries are being done in Canada.
The Health Status of Canadians
Many factors affect a person's health. Throughout the world, economic status has a strong impact on illness, disability and mortality. Where a person lives, either in urban or rural areas, affects service delivery and costs. Age is also a factor-- young people and the elderly have distinct health concerns. Gender must also be considered because women tend to live longer than men but suffer more from chronic poor health. Jobs and the workplace play their part through exposure to hazards that can affect health such as chemicals, noise, radiation, infectious agents and psychosocial stress.
Canadians have a very favourable health status. Canada's high ranking on the United Nations Human Development Index is due, in large measure, to Canada's health care system. 6 The length of time a person could be expected to live (life expectancy) is widely used to show health status. As of 2002, the average life expectancy at birth for Canadians was 82.1 years for women and 77.2 years for men, which is among the highest in the industrialized countries. 7 The number of deaths of children under one year (infant mortality) is another widely used measure to demonstrate health status. Canada's infant mortality rate for 2002 of 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births is one of the lowest in the world. 8
The good health status of Canadians is based on more than health care services. Health is now considered to be a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not just the absence of disease or illness. This approach includes social, economic and physical environmental factors that contribute to health. Focusing on health promotion, public health, population health and prevention aims to improve the health of an entire population and to reduce health inequities among population groups.
I had a bit of a problem with the article.....a little too holier-than-thou.....but you are right on with this post, Juan. I just went through a quadruple bypass, and am about to have cataract surgery.....all delivered in chop-chop time, absolutely free......the service has been extremely competent, delivered quickly, simply great.
I know we have some problems (try getting a GP in New Brunswick), but my respect for the system has grown mightily over the past 6 months.
Colpy. I've had a similar experience to yours with the heart surgery. My brother in Calgary just finished having the second eye lens replacement/cataract surgery without a problem...He had one eye done, waited about sixty days and had the other one done.
My experience in hospital really showed the shortage of nurses. Those girls literally worked their buns off and have my undying gratitude.. In this case it is entirely the fault of our provincial government. Premier Cambell reneged on a signed contract and a lot of nurses just left. I don't blame them.
Yeah apples to apples, as in comparing your "socialized" health care with another countrys' "socialized" health care. Are you daft?
I'll try to keep this civil. The U.S. does not have "A system". The U.S. has at least a dozen or more systems I'm sure that a few of those systems provide a similar service to Canada's health care. The "socialized single payer system" is more than likely the most efficient way of dealing with health care.
I'll be interested to see what Arnie comes up with in California.
No! We are all tied together by the Canada health act. Provinces are allowed to vary a bit on minor issues. I have lived and worked in four provinces, including Ontario and found little to complain about.in any of them.
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hcs-sss/medi-assur/overview-apercu/index_e.html
I'm one of them unfortunately. There is no way I will go back to BC while that man is in office. The disrespect I felt during that time left such a bad taste in my mouth that my heart wasn't in it anymore. I still remember the health minister saying us nurses could always get jobs in fast food if we didn't like the contract. Leaving was the best thing I could do for my self respect and I miss BC, but it's been more than 5 years now and I don't regret that decision a bit. Off topic I know... I do believe in the system. I don't believe in that particular government. I really think he wants to mess up healthcare so badly that people demand private as some sort of a solution.
The courts have recently forced the government back to the table on that one. I'm sorry good people had to leave because of that a-hole. Previous to my heart problems, I never had medical problems other than injuries from sports. I applaud all the medical people I was involved with on the heart troubles. They all were excellent.
Sure it does, for the poor and the elderly, and many states cover middle class.
#juan, I'm not saying the US has the best "health care system" out there, quite the contray, I think it needs an overhaul, a major overhaul. No, I don't believe any public delivery of health care is going to work.
The issue I have is that you wanted to point out the strengths in your system (and I concede it certainly has strengths) and not talk about the US in the process. Yet, your entire article is a "pat ourselves on the back for doing better than the yanks". It's pathetic. Ever wonder why nobody in Canada ever compares your health care system with another one that is more similar in its delivery?
Because you rank at the bottom.
There are several clinics in Saskatchewan for weight loss and addictions that we simply don't have here. And you can't go from one province to another for care, which is really stupid. I figure if I need surgery and I can't get it in a timely manner in Ontario I ought to be allowed to go to say, Manitoba and get it...
Many people do go out of province for treatment, though it isn't because of wait time issues. We used to take patients from Alberta when I was in BC (high risk referal hospitals often do this). My cousin's child has a brain tumour and gets treated in Ontario, despite them living in Saskatchewan because the specialists are in Toronto (Sick Kids is one of the best hospitals I've ever seen). If your province doesn't have the ability to treat you, they will pay for your care elsewhere in Canada. They won't pay for you to go to Saskatchewan to get treatment for addiction when they have addiction centers in the province that you could go to though. They aren't obligated to do that.
You going to Manitoba for surgery would be budging in front of one of their own residents. There is no reason for them to allow you to do that since their residents are their first priority. They pay taxes to fund the system in their province. Your OHIP would cover you for the first few months in Manitoba if you were to move there though (until the Manitoba plan kicks in).
I don't know if this is any different from what any other country does. I know here, I didn't have the right to insist on treatment outside of my network of providers when I had an HMO (they had a list of docs and hospitals they would pay for). Now I have a PPO which means I can see any doctor or go to any hospital I want, but if it isn't on their list I have to pay a fair bit of the bill. I don't know if I'm allowed to go out of state or not. My friend had surgery in England and from what I understand she had to be treated in her health region. She wasn't allowed to insist she receive treatment outside of it unless it was a treatment they couldn't provide her.
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You sir, are full of it.
Canada's health care does not rank at the bottom because the Americans already have the bottom position sewed up.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Health/O_Canada_KP.html
tracy-I think the problem is that I see "unavailable" differently than the government. If I can't get my treatment started within the year, I consider it unavailable. Ontario considers it available if I can someday get it.
And that is what makes it unequal in my eyes. If BC'ers can find a family practice doctor in 30 days and we in Ontario can't, that's not equal. Personally I feel that if the system were consolidated as a federal project rather than provincial, they could legislate where doctors work. For instance, if you choose to live and practice in BC where there are (presumably from what Ive seen posted here) tons and tons of doctors, you get on a waiting list to be approved as a government provider. Whereas if you choose to practice in Ontario where there is a severe shortage, you get incentives like tax breaks and such.
Of course the government couldnt afford that. They couldnt afford to pay people extra to come to Ontario because then all the people would get care and the price of paying for all that care would also go up. The government would be out twice as much money.
I guess that's why there was never a shortage of doctors and equipment in West Virginia. They didnt have to get paid by the government.
What you're asking for is completely impossible to deliver. First off, docs aren't governement employees. They didn't sign up for army service or something like that where the government has the right to tell them where to live. The day that happens you can count on a mass exodus of docs and I personally would support them. I work in a field with a shortage too, and there is no way I would put up with the government telling me where I could and could not work. We had a contract legislated on us too. I left.
Secondly, it's impossible in a country with our geography to have complete equality in providers. Toronto is going to have different resources than Yellowknife. That's just the reality.
BTW, for people looking for family doctors, you may consider asking your local hospital. I know Mount Sinai in Toronto used to keep a list of GPs accepting new patients. It's how I found the medical clinic I chose to use.
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