True, Simon. I did notice the Alberta report only compared itself with itself. It is possible comparisons with other jurisdictions would not be as flattering.
Canadian Health Care
by Corvin 25 Replies latest jw friends
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Shutterbug
I don't care if you don't like it
There you go Corvin, you're doing the same thing to me Tailsen did to you !!! I don't like or dislike the Canadian Health care system, I was just giving you some obversations. Having never been exposed to the Canadian system I have no way of judging it, but in spite of the fact that I'm an uneducated country boy, I can read.
Come on, Canadians, send your obversations and get me off the hot seat. Bug
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ColdRedRain
In Minnesota, we sort of have "Socialized" medicine, to the tune of "If you have no money and you need help, come on in, if you have enough money to buy insurance and you simply don't want to buy it, you deserve to be ill." (Using Simon's analogy).
It's a fair enough system, since we have the best hospitals in the world.
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Lady Lee
Another Canadian reporting in
We have good doctors and bad doctors. But the doctors are complaining too about the way the system is run. The waiting lists are the biggest problem and that isn't the fault of the doctors.
In Montreal where finding a GP for your family is next to impossible you can go to a clinic on almost every block. Non-urgent care can be gotten within a few hours. People check in and are asked what the problem is. Then they are prioritized depending on the urgency. If it is a real medical emergency they will send you to the hospital.
At the hospital an evaluation is made and people are prioritzed according the the medical need. Heart and respiratory problems will always go to the top of the line along with urgent bleeding cases. If you have a broken arm the heart problem will go ahead of you. And I think that is only right and most Canadinas would agree (I suppose unless you have the broken arm lol).
No one ever asks about $$$. You are treated equally when you walk in the door.
Now your personal doctor (Manitoba seems to have a lot more doctors per person so they are easier to get) may slip a favored patient in the door between other patients but mine has early morning hours 3 days a week and will work some Saturdays to help people who work. He is very accommodating. And if he is so booked he can't take me I can always go to a local clinic.
When I had my surgeries (both in Winnipeg or Montreal) I never had a problem - ever. Doctors and nurses were always great - always. Well OK I had one nurse I had to tell to get out of my room - she was making me laugh all the time and it hurt my stitches).
When I had my appendix out I showed up at the hospital and was taken in immediately (I told them I thought it was my appendix - so no waiting). I was in surgery within 2 hours of the final tests coming back.
On the other hand I had to wait for 6 weeks for a some non-urgent surgery.
The beauty of this is that since I have paid through my taxes when I really need it no one asks me for a dime
edited to add
Nor am I evaluated on what I wear or how much money I have but rather on the medical need. Persoanlly I think that is a far better deal than being scared to see a doctor because you have no insurance and waiting until things are too late to be taken care of
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zeena1998
Interesting topic...one that I can relate to. I am a Canadian living here in the States. Now I'm fortunate that we have pretty decent health insurance coverage but let me tell you, it certainly IS different than in Canada. I am in the interesting position to see how both ways of doing "business" work. Take for example last year when I dislocated my shoulder. My husband drove me to the emergency room here in California and I was seen almost immediately. He filled out all of the necessary paper work while I was being xray'd and a couple of hours later, we were on our way home. Imagine my surprise when about a month later, we recieved a bill in the mail for $750.00!! Apparently the cost of the "Milk of Amnesia" that the Dr gave me to put me out for a few minutes to reset my shoulder wasn't covered, nor was the total cost of the xray. That was a big surprise. By the same token, I have a family doctor who is simply amazing...whenever I need to go see him, he is patient (no pun intended) and is very thourough. He's so good that I don't mind paying the $10 co-pay.
That being said, let me be one of the first to jump on the pro-Canadian Health Care band wagon. Although I believe that we all take it for granted to a certain extent, we have access to amazing doctors and nurses. Because they are not in it primarily for the paycheck, you know that you will get some of the best care around. The major draw back about having universal health care IS the waiting. My husband's uncle had a major heart attack several years ago and needed by-pass surgery. The list was so long, he had to wait 8 months before they could finally get him in. In the meantime, he had a massive stroke that eventually led to his death. My sister's former boyfriend had a potentially fatal thickening of his esophogus that would have been easily fixed by some minor surgery. He had to wait four months to have it. I hate to say it but had these occurences happened here in the States AND they had the money for health insurance, the wait would have been weeks rather than months.
Both systems have their advantages and both systems need some fine tuning but I think all told, we are fortunate to live in countries where we do have the level of healthcare that we can benifit from.
Andie
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Mary
He made a comment abote Canadian health care and was saying that the quality of the health care system itself is far below that of the US.
This is true but it didn't used to be that way.......the bottom line is: our greedy, disgusting government
almost destroyed"trimmed" our Health Care System several years ago and it's been going down ever since. The newest moron we've got as the Premiere of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, lied his ass off (naturally) before the election saying he wouldn't raise taxes. Of course, the creep raised them before the ink was dry and now we all get to pay an additional $200 - $600 a year tax, plus the bastard said that OHIP would no longer pay for physiotherapy........nice eh? That might not seem like much from an American point of view (considering Health Care premiums in the States), but you have to remember that we are taxed much higher than you guys. For example, as soon as you make $60,000/year up here, you're taxed at 50%.........pretty pathetic eh? As well, we pay 15% tax on virtually everything from clothes to funerals in this country now........this is how they supposedly fund our health care system. Yet comparisons show that in Canada, our government spends only 6% of all revenues on our health care system----the same amount that the States spends on Medicare; and you guys aren't taxed nearly as much as we are.He asserts that because the doctors in Canada can't make inflated fees for their services and all get paid the same, that they simply don't care to give the best of care to their patients.
Well, I don't think you can make a blanket statement like that and apply it to ALL doctors---because of the extreme shortage of doctors, especially here in Ontario, many of the doctors are at the breaking point and many of them, IMO, have simply stopped caring about the patients like they used to. It's true that the Canadian doctors can't make inflated fees for their services like American doctors can, nor do I think they should be able to. While I believe that doctors have the right to make a very good wage, the astronomical fees that are charged in the States is absurd, and I can't believe that the government hasn't done something to reign them in years ago. Making an excellent living is one thing---gouging people is another.