Calgary Herald- Policymakers in Ottawa and Edmonton maintain broken health-care system
In 2021 (the latest year of available data), among high-income universal health-care countries, Canada spent the highest share of its economy on health care (after adjusting for age differences between countries). For that world-class level of spending, Canada ranked 28th in the availability of physicians, 23rd in hospital beds, 25th in MRI scanners and 26th in CT scanners. And we ranked dead last on wait times for specialist care and non-emergency surgeries.
This abysmal performance has been consistent since at least the early 2000s, with Canada regularly posting top-ranked spending alongside bottom-ranked performance in access to health care.
Ottawa Citizen- No concern about ’diminished supply’ of doctors in Ontario: Health ministry
The argument from the province comes as the OMA, which represents Ontario’s doctors, has repeatedly warned that more than two million residents don’t have a family doctor and thousands of physician jobs are going unfilled.
Don’t worry. Everybody that works for the State will be able to see a doctor just fine.
But we can’t give you a date.
It’s nothing. WE just need to ramp up the importation of highly trained black doctors from Africa. Because as we all know, Africa produces the best doctors.
Wait. I was told the Cuba doc’s are the best. Castro said so
South Africans are amongst the best doctors in the world , but it has become extremely difficult for any doctor to come and work here
Living in Florida for the last year and a half I have some observations.
– Our health care plan for a family of 4 is expensive but less than the difference between Canadian taxes and what I now pay here. Increased cost of living gobbles up the rest though so financially pretty much net even
– Every visit to a Dr. or care facility costs something out of pocket, usually around $50
– We all have a family dr. and have since day 1
– We do not wait for specialists or diagnostic testing but you do need to stay “within network” which is challenging; however, you can choose not to and pay out of pocket which we have done at times.
– We are more aware of the associated costs and plan accordingly
– Our deductibles for a single year could land us in short term financial hardship if we have a significant emergency but not long term financial distress
– Facilities have thus far been very clean, not busy, service has been excellent with providers always advocating for early diagnosis and testing
– Anecdotally, because we haven’t been to emerg, I hear that emergency wait times are very long, up to 12 hours long due to uninsured illegals
We’ve spent seven winters in Florida with one encounter with the health care system and various observations. I had a cramp in my calf which I thought was a torn muscle (it was an extremely painful cramp). The pharmacist at Walgreens warned me this was also a symptom of a blood clot and to treat it as serious. He recommended one of many local clinics and told me to not go to a hospital as they were very expensive. The doctor arranged a doppler (i.e. ultrasound) that evening, blood tests and an MRI the next morning. Total cost including two visits to the doctor was about $725 Cdn. and all done in less than 24 hours. BTW – it was a torn muscle and our insurance paid us within a week of submitting receipts.
OTH – I was speaking with one of our neighbours a few days ago and he was hospitalized for several days in Florida with an issue with his kidneys. Excellent care but four days in the hospital cost about $76,000 U.S. Lucky for him he was insured and the insurance company transported him back to Ontario as soon as he could be safely released (Air Canada first class).
We live in a small town in rural Ontario and we have to travel 200 km. each way to see our doctors in the Torono area. It’s impossible to get a family doctor here and before we can apply, we have to delist from our current doctor. Crazy system.
Prior to the onslaught of illegals wait times at Florida ERs were posted on billboards, usually never exceeded 15 or 20 minutes.
I can’t see raising the capital gains tax will have any effect on the retention of Canadian doctors, can you?
The Canada Health Care Act started out as a 50/50 cost sharing ratio. It’s nowhere near that now. Free healthcare is not free.
… but how do we rank in terms of hospital administrators and ministry of health bureaucrats?
No one could top us! Ten years ago I was chatting with an acquaintance I hadn’t seen for fifteen years. His wife was a nurse at a local hospital. I asked how it was going. He mentioned they had halved the number of beds since she had started in the late 70’s. So, I asked what they were doing with all of the extra space. You guessed correctly; administration. That sums up the problem with every government system. The middle and top are bloated.
When your only comparable competition is North Korea, I imagine that we are doing quite well. The Canadian Health care system is the embodiment of the politics of envy, resentment, and hatred. It was implemented and since defended by Jacobins and Bolsheviks of all parties. When your only tool in management is rationing but the pretense of reform and obfuscation is omnipresent as is the swollen administration, add in the captured monopoly by labour, reform is impossible. Studies have shown that every additional dollar thrown at the system yields little to nothing in improvement.
“People before Profits” … was the slogan of the Communists pushing Obamakkare … as they pointed to the WONDERFUL world class Canadian Socialized medicine. Hmmm? So what’s motivating the shitty peoplecare in Socialist Canada? Hint: it starts with a ‘P’
In nations that impose restrictions on the masses, the ruling elite always exempt themselves. None of our leaders will ever wait for any of those.
Happened upon a video of a large American family who had moved to Russia. During the video, he mentioned he had had a bad fall and I believe he’d torn a rotator cuff. He imagined big expense. In the end, they apologized for how much it would cost to repair. The equivalent of USD$1,400, which included a triple cost MRI of $90, because he didn’t want to wait. Service was quick, friendly, clean and no residual pain.
This was the known outcome of the Rae government in Ontario claiming there were too many doctors costing the system too much. It acted by slashing medical school enrolment by 12 per cent. Today’s shortage is a direct result of Bob Rae’s blundering attempts to control the provincial budget deficit.
“This was the known outcome of the Rae government in Ontario…”
Though it pains me to defend Boob Rae in any way, and though nothing he did was anything but destructive, poor old Boob was not the reason we have shortages today.
Boob was in fact the only one who said the truth out loud: patient care is a COST in a socialized system. The more patients there are, and the more doctors there are treating them, the more it costs. Now, Boob being a hard-core Big Government guy, instead of cutting administration costs and labor costs and all that, he did the easy thing. Cut doctors. They’ve moved on since Boob was in charge, now they just under-fund everything except administration.
Rationing and eventually collapse is the inevitable result of a single-payer system. But also Boob and company were idiots, there’s no question about that.
As long as the system is set up as “Single, Third Party Payer”, Tommy Douglas isn’t dead enough.
And the bureaucrats in charge have no incentives to change a system that works for them.
I wonder if illegal immigrants and gimmeegrants going to the head of the line ahead of Canadians for healthcare of all kinds including organ transplants has any effect on these shortages?
Canadians love a Command Economy run by their Big Government.
Because Canadians are ignorant and or stupid.
That is why health care sucks.
If Big Government were in charge of shoes, it would be the same thing.
But try telling a Canadian that.
“They (whoever “they” are) want to privatize it!” they scream like irrational children if you even mention a dual system.
The health system is run like the governments. Lots of unnecessary administrative positions. No one is held accountable and nothing substantive is ever accomplished .
But, but, but… it’s FREE!
[Mother of all eyerolls]