The line-ups for health treatment has grown to 18.3 weeks, double since 1993. Not enough money in our medical system. A powerful lobby doesn’t want you spending your own money on treatment, better you to stay sick for months to protect the “system”. Just like the only other country in the world that forbids private health care….. Communist North Korea.
related on Government Finances: Complexity Failure Crisis & Panic
Who is the outlaw? The person who wants to spend their money on health care or the person who wants to provide healthcare for your money? In Canada, I thought it was the latter. Unless you are a dog. Then its all OK and you can get instant health care for your dollar.
Ok guys….now you can freak out
If she can’t even do an interview….who’s going to be running the country if she’s elected?
http://www.infowars.com/was-hillary-wearing-an-earpiece-during-last-nights-presidential-forum/
I think we should add Cuba to the list of countries with health care systems similar to ours. Canada, North Korea and Cuba: We are indeed in esteemed company.
Sheesh!
Answer is NBC. That said, I am not the traffic cop on Kate’s blog, but this comments should have gone to the Reader Tips thread.
Great article by Michael. He is right.
If some in Canada get their way health care will not be the only similarity with North Korea.
The idiots oppose private clinics because they think the new private clinics will ‘poach’ staff from the public system.
By that logic they should oppose every new business because the new businesses will poach staff from existing businesses.
If we ‘allow’ more farms the new farms will poach staff from existing farms.
If we allow new potash mines the new mines will poach staff from the existing mines.
And by that same logic we shouldn’t allow any expansion of government because any new departments will poach staff from existing government departments.
Before Obamakare was enacted, Obama and America’s leftists encouraged Americans to become medical tourists … to Cuba. The leftists were constantly praising the quality of Cubas “free” medical care. My advice (based on the leftist brainiacs advice) … is for all Canadians book their hip surgery in Havana. No waiting, for top quality medicine in Cuba !! Vive Che ! Vive Castro ! However … you might want to delay your trip to the Venezuelan doctor for a few months …
My wife and I had a medical issue a few years ago that wasn’t entirely covered by our esteemed health care system. Spent 26 months on a waiting list to see the publicly funded specialist. When we decided to go ahead with a treatment plan that wasn’t covered it was a Friday afternoon, paid cash and treatment started Saturday morning.
We hear nothing from UN or other such groups claiming to be concerned about human rights but they let our animals have better access to Healthcare than us??
In the simplistic mind of the left-leaning person there are many “valid” reasons for opposing anyone spending his or her own money on health care. The most popular view is that such a person would be unfairly jumping the queue and receiving treatment before those that can’t afford to go it on their own. Never mind the obvious fact that if someone “jumps the queue”, everyone else in line behind the offender moves up a notch and everyone ahead of the offender loses nothing. Another excuse is the inevitable poaching of employees by private clinics. This was dealt with very well by Stan at 10:30. However, when all is said and done, the thing that really sticks in the throats of most lefties is the fact that someone just might take the initiative and the risks, open a successful clinic and actually make a buck. The thought of this, to the average lefty, is akin to someone running fingernails down a blackboard.
But but but… free healthcare is a Canadian Value!
Anyone who praises the Canadian healthcare system clearly has never had to use it.
The issue, simply put, is preserving a defective system at all human costs because the alternative could be more attractive.
Those who oppose private healthcare for others don’t wait six hours in emergency rooms themselves.
Do leftists really believe that there aren’t trained medical professionals looking for work?
Oh, yes – fewer training placements.
Then there is the little matter of accepting similar credentials from other provinces, the US or Commonwealth countries.
Once again, the government is the reason why we can’t have nice things.
“Once again, the government is the reason why we can’t have nice things.”
Now that sums it up perfectly!
The Chaoulli SCoC decision already noted the dire of about private health causing the demise of the public system were not credible.
It essentially argued if government is to become the monopoly provider of health care, then it was do so in a timely and effective manner.
This decision has been essentially ignored, though Dr Brian Day in BC has raised the hackles of the medical establishment once again, as they roll out the old canard, seemingly oblivious to the Chaouilli decision:
“That’s the challenge with for-profit clinics is only a very small percentage of Canadians can access them because most Canadians can’t afford to pay out of pocket for medical services, so this case is really about profit, huge amounts of profit.”
Not a good argument with the BC Supreme Court looking at clear precedent. What’s good for QC is good for BC eh? The lawyer types can weigh in.
http://www.cknw.com/2016/09/06/private-healthcare-lawsuit-against-b-c-government-begins-in-b-c-supreme-court/
Instead of the left predicting doom and gloom from allowing private health care, why don’t they look at every country that has better health care than Canada to see how none of their fear mongering predictions of doom happened in those countries?
We don’t have to speculate what will happen if we are allowed to spend our own damn money on our own damn healthcare, all we have to do is go look at every country that already allows it.
Why do they speculate instead of looking at real world examples?
They rely on speculation because real world examples prove they are liars and idiots.
Anyone who praises the Canadian healthcare system clearly has never had to use it.
I’ve had occasion to use our health care system and in all cases it worked just fine for an otherwise healthy person who needed medical treatment for healing the occasional affliction.
The people who seem to have the most problems are those unhealthy people who treat it as a ‘sick care’ system, and are constantly seeking another medication to compensate for their unhealthy lifestyle choices.
It also depends a lot on where one lives in Canada and the quality of medical professionals that region attracts. While our system isn’t perfect and could be improved, it’s a whole lot better than the alternatives.
I also believe people should be allowed to spend their own money at private clinics, however I don’t believe those private clinics should receive any government funding.
British health care rationing:
“Obese people will be routinely refused operations across the NHS, health service bosses have warned, after one authority said it would limit procedures on an unprecedented scale.
Hospital leaders in North Yorkshire said that patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above – as well as smokers – will be barred from most surgery for up to a year amid increasingly desperate measures to plug a funding black hole. The restrictions will apply to standard hip and knee operations.
The decision, described by the Royal College of Surgeons as the “most severe the modern NHS has ever seen”, led to warnings that other trusts will soon be forced to follow suit and rationing will become the norm if the current funding crisis continues.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/02/obese-patients-and-smokers-banned-from-all-routine-operations-by/
Our health care system is a whole lot better than the alternatives?
That is demonstratively false.
Canada health care is not ranked number one.
Every country with better health care than us allows private health care.
“I’ve had occasion to use our health care system”
Me too. For me, it was a horror show. I waited 6 months for an MRI during the wait I wasn’t allowed any real painkillers because there was no proof that I needed them.
And that was line jumping. My doctor told me the wait period was 2years. He got me in to see a sports doctor and after I told him the knee problem prevented me from playing volleyball I was fast tracked from 2years to 6 months.
That’s just one of the stories.
If I could have flown to the U.S. at the time I could have gotten an MRI within 24 hours at a private facility.
The truth about our Canadian system is that x number of each procedure is budgeted for per annum and that’s where the waiting lines begin.
By procedure I’m not even talking about diagnosis. Nope. They don’t like diagnostics much because that screws up the procedural waiting lists.
I know people who have died because of delayed diagnosis. By the time they got the diagnostics their disease was too far along it’s track and there was nothing to do but Care & Comfort and pick out your favourite casket.
The things that don’t show up in all the stats and studies are things like the missed tumour in the xray that leads to your death from cancer. I’ve seen that one play out TWICE now. So yeah great it’s free but you might die because of the subpar staff and equipment so enjoy. All so some bums get it for free remember that.
Health care is an interesting product. We could spend every last cent on it but we will still would all get sick and die (at least for now).
Given that, it must be rationed. The socialist approach is via queue theory, hence wait times become a metric of quality. In a free society, the rationing mechanism is price.
With the latter system, medical treatment is a medical and economic decision between patient and doctor. In the former, ot it is a political decision.
George Soros will continue his reign.
Yeah, political decision.
Like that time when Olde ScrewFace Chretien missed that important State Funeral while he was off skiing in the U.S.
Only he wasn’t skiing, that was a lie to cover for the fact that he was accompanying his daughter to a U.S. clinic because our Canadian healthcare wasn’t good enough.
But that there was a political decision, the Shawinigan Strangler knew he needed to get his beloved daughter some first rate medical care and save his political hide by hiding it from the great unwashed un-medically attended masses who had to make do with second rate care at home in Canaduh.
“Canada health care is not ranked number one. Every country with better health care than us allows private health care.”
Exactly. There is a reason why Canada is 28th on the OECD healthcare listing. The US is 31st.
Only the orthodox leftist ideology in this country prevents us from exploring just how the other 28 countries manage this.
People who would prevent Canadians from spending their own money on their own health care within Canada are the moral equivalent to those who ran the Soviet Gulags or the Nazi Concentration camps. Ideological thugs, nothing more.
In 2001, I was living like a vegetable (herniated disk) in BC waiting for a referral to a neuro surgeon. After six weeks and facing six months more (three to see the specialist and another three in his queue), I decided that if I stayed here, I would end up crippled, broke, and incontinent by the time I could be treated. I went to Washington State and negotiated with a neuro surgeon and hospital (you have leverage when you are paying with cash) and a week after almost immediate surgery I was walking a mile a day.
I’ve lived in Canada and the US and it has been my experience that the delivery of medical service was far superior South of the border. It’s expensive to those with means and not covered by employer group insurance and now thanks to Obama, imploding by design.
The union attitude in Canada’s hospitals is toxic. The other nasty attitude by health care “professionals” is that everyone must suffer their quota of waiting with pain and discomfort like some egalitarian duty. Canadians would likely be better cared for if we used Veterinarians instead of our national socialist monument.
I must protest.
I can give you several examples of otherwise perfectly healthy people who have befallen spates of injury or bad health and were kept waiting or were otherwise mistreated.
Yes, there are the oafs but there are also people who get into accidents or get cancer and so forth.
Private clinics would have allowed them and others the choice in treatment, personnel and time.
Private clinics would have allowed them and others the choice in treatment, personnel and time.
yup, I said the same.
Protest all you want about people who “were kept waiting or were otherwise mistreated.”. I’m sure there are plenty of examples of good and bad treatment to fuel any argument.
Perhaps there was part of:
“It also depends a lot on where one lives in Canada and the quality of medical professionals that region attracts. ”
which was beyond your understanding?
I made a conscious choice to live where I do because among other advantages the medical service would be very good quality.
If you’re in a region of Canada with poor medical service, then ask yourself about the consequences of the free choices you make.
“People who would prevent Canadians from spending their own money on their own health care within Canada are the moral equivalent to those who ran the Soviet Gulags or the Nazi Concentration camps. Ideological thugs, nothing more.”
Exactly.
I tell people who oppose private clinics to put their money where their mouth is and go down to the few private clinics like the MRI ones in Regina and physically stop people taking their loved ones there for relief.
I tell them to go stand in front of the parent who has made the choice to spend their own money to relieve their child’s suffering and demand that they stop it because it offends them.
In principle it is no different if they stop that parent with a piece of paper or if they physically stop them from helping their loved ones.
The idea that I cannot spend my own money on my own health care or the health care of my loved ones is monstrous and obscene.
That this is even being debated is absurd, and the fact that it is the minority opinion is a dark stain on Canadian culture and society.
The idiots in the media rave on about our fascist health system as an icon of Canadian culture, and sadly it is representative of our culture but I see it as a black mark of shame on our culture.
Why anyone would celebrate such thuggishness and stupidity is beyond me.
You’re right.
People stricken with cancer can just pick up and move anywhere else in the country where they can be kept waiting some more.
If the entire system is broken, location is irrelevant, not that the aforementioned examples live in the middle of bloody nowhere, NWT.
“People stricken with cancer” are walking dead; they can’t be cured, only the misery prolonged. No amount of health care can ‘fix’ that. Give them unlimited morphine.
That sounds an awfully lot like government bean-counter talk to me.