Canadian health care: myths and facts

[Richard]

I've seen lots of myths about the "universal" health care of Canada.  Here are some facts.

- You go to a doctor.  Price to you?  FREE
(caveat: doctors are hard to find, and many are moving to the United States.  Their income are capped, and they get a specific amount per person they see.  My home town has 4 doctors serving over 80,000 people.)

- You go to a doctor because you're feeling light headed.  It appears your blood pressure is too high (or too low), and that you need to start taking medication for the rest of your life.  Doctor?  FREE.  Medication?  You gotta pay for it.
(caveat: While medication in Canada is definitely cheaper than the United States, because people actually have to pay, it is still expensive and many people cannot afford the prices.  For them, there is no solution.  The "universal" health care will only provide free drugs if your income is incredibly low, as in below $5,000 or so.)

- You need major reconstructive dental surgery due to crashing your bicycle into a wall.  Cost to you: LOTS.  Dental care is not covered one iota.

- You need glasses, contact lenses, or just a checkup at your eye doctor.  Cost to you: LOTS.  It ain't included in the "universal" health care.

- You break your leg.  Cost to fix you up: FREE.  Cost of medication so you don't have pain for the next 3 weeks: LOTS.  Medication ain't covered.

- (this just happened to a friend) Ingrown toenail.  Badly ingrown.  Go to doctor (free).  Doctor refuses to remove nail so it can regrow, but prescribes antibiotics (not free).  Wait a bit.  Go to doctor again.  Same deal.  Doctor free, prescribed medication not.  Wait a bit.  Go to ER (Emergency Room) at the hospital.  Doctor there recommends you go and see a specialist.  (It is impossible to see a specialist without a reference from a doctor, and their incomes are also capped.)  ER and doctor is free.  Specialist's cost of removing the nail is not free.  Neither is the medication he recommends.  Neither is the room he did the surgery in.


WHAT IS PAID FOR:
- all hospital costs
- all doctor costs (so you can go to a doctor twice a week to complain how you feel, and the tax payers will foot that bill)
- all surgery costs


Caveats:

- Surgery queues are long.  Most medical procedures' queues are long.  It takes over 12 months to get a MRI in Ontario for a human (it takes < 24 hours to get a MRI for my dog).

- You get cheapest stuff.  You need a hip replacement?  Have fun with that plastic stuff the government is giving you.  Do you have a chance of the latest greatest alloy cooked up by Johnson and Johnson's?  Nope, unless you go South.

- Good luck finding a bed in the hospital.  Ontario has a severe shortage.  So much, in fact, that people are forced to stay in ambulances because the hospitals are full.

- When they think you need to die, they send you home to die.  If you're a cancer victim, and you have less than a month to live, you take up space and are an inconvenience.  They send you home, with your medicine and stuff.  Many people return to places where there are no one to take care of them, or to look after them.  No one to change the drips.  No one to make sure they get their medication.  Many people just die of starvation and dehydration because they don't realize what is going on, and there is no nurse to ensure your wellbeing.  In South Africa, you get better care than this.



It comes down to this.  If I'm in a fatal accident, I'd want to be treated in the United States.  Or South Africa.  But NOT Canada.  My mom is a nurse.  She has 15 years experience in South Africa, and 5 years in Canada.  South Africa may not have the latest greatest stuff, but you're taken care of no matter who you are.  Why?  All the rich people have private care, thus easing the stress of off the public care.  South Africa's universal health care system is free, and universal.  That includes dentists, eye doctors, hospitals, and the works.

Canada's does not work.  And that is a fact.  (If the Quebec premier sends his kids to the United States for schooling and for health care, you know things are going bad.)

Have pity on us, and never, NEVER, socialize your health care.  Your hospitals and doctors will resemble the conditions in Eastern Europe after socialism collapsed.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Life expectancies
Canada: 79.4 years
US: 77.1 years
http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa042000b.htm

Health care administrative costs:
Canada: $307 per capita
US: $1059 per capita
http://consumeraffairs.com/news03/health_costs.html

And despite the fact that the US is a richer country:
Total health care costs as a fraction of GDP:
Canada 9.1%
US 14.1%
http://www.therubins.com/medicare/healthcare.htm


I rest my case.

[Richard]

Life expectancies
Canada: 79.4 years
US: 77.1 years
http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa042000b.htm

Standard and absolute deviation please.

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Lovely, and you're a ing idiot.

"The overhead cost of operating"

Go down, and read this part:

"The study by Dr. Steffi Woolhandler of the Harvard School of Medicine found that Americans spend more on administrative costs because of the many private companies supplying insurance coverage. The multitude of companies create increased paperwork while Canadian doctors send their claims to a single insurer, the government."

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Heh.  You lost.

[Richard]

Anyways, I'm wondering... Do you consider Canada's health care system universal, knowing it excludes dental care, eye care, and medicine?  (If you're a chronic patient with high blood pressure, a diabetic, and high cholesterol, you're ed.)

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Life expectancies
Canada: 79.4 years
US: 77.1 years
http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa042000b.htm

Standard and absolute deviation please.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Lovely, and you're a g idiot.

"The overhead cost of operating"

Go down, and read this part:

"The study by Dr. Steffi Woolhandler of the Harvard School of Medicine found that Americans spend more on administrative costs because of the many private companies supplying insurance coverage. The multitude of companies create increased paperwork while Canadian doctors send their claims to a single insurer, the government."

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Heh.  You lost.

Hey, dumbsh**t, you didn't read my whole post, I edited it later.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Anyways, I'm wondering... Do you consider Canada's health care system universal, knowing it excludes dental care, eye care, and medicine?  (If you're a chronic patient with high blood pressure, a diabetic, and high cholesterol, you're f**cked.)

Gee, that's terrible.
The US's universal health care system excludes everything.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

(caveat: doctors are hard to find, and many are moving to the United States.

Wrong.

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Actually, this is a much better ratio than most parts of the U.S., when you factor in the fact that most doctors in the U.S. aren't affordable to low-income people.

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As is usually the case in the U.S.

I had to go 11 years without seeing a dentist.

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As is usually the case in the U.S.

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As is usually the case in the U.S.

Except medication is far more expensive in the U.S.

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Compared to the U.S., they are not long.

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I just saw a news story about how they do just that in Cincinnati.

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Then whose health care system would you rather have? The United States (shudder)?

[Hatman 🍁]

I live in Canada, and I have no complaints about the system whatsoever.  Canadians, generally love our free health care, even those on the right, so it's not going to change any time soon.

[opebo]

It comes down to this.  If I'm in a fatal accident, I'd want to be treated in the United States. 

HAH!  If I'm in a fatal accident I don't think I'd care where I was treated!

[David S]

For the US
This is just anecdotal but I had an MRI about 10 years ago and hernia surgery about 5 years ago. I think it took a couple of weeks in each case to get it. There is no waiting period per se. It is just a matter of finding a mutually agreeable time.

[Jake]

(caveat: doctors are hard to find, and many are moving to the United States.

Wrong.

My doctor's office just got a doctor from Canada.  Right

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Actually, this is a much better ratio than most parts of the U.S., when you factor in the fact that most doctors in the U.S. aren't affordable to low-income people.

My county, 20,000 people and lower middle class, has 8 doctors offices.  My doctor's office is always filled with white trash. You make the call

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As is usually the case in the U.S.

I had to go 11 years without seeing a dentist.

So you have sh**tty teeth

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As is usually the case in the U.S.

Key is, we don't pay into a system that denies it to us

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As is usually the case in the U.S.

See above

Except medication is far more expensive in the U.S.

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Compared to the U.S., they are not long.

Hmmm, my dad needed an MRI a few months back, wait was 1 week.

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I just saw a news story about how they do just that in Cincinnati.

I'm sure many places do this. Less hospital beds are a result of the 1st world's population aging

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Then whose health care system would you rather have? The United States (shudder)?

I haven't died yet, so I'll take the US's