Posted on 11/04/2009 4:03:48 AM PST by Kaslin
After more than a decade of public health care with mandatory coverage, so many Canadian doctors have left the practice and so many young people have entered other fields that Canada ranks 26th of 28 developed nations in its ratio of physicians to population. Once, Canada ranked among the leaders in the number of physicians -- but that was before government health care drove doctors out of the practice in droves.
The fundamental fact is that we cannot cover 36 million new patients without more doctors and nurses, much less with the declining census of medical professionals the Canadian experience points to.
A recent survey of doctors by the Pew Institute found that 45 percent of all practicing doctors would consider retiring or closing their practices if the Barack Obama health care bill passes. This scarcity of medical personnel heightens the likelihood of draconian rationing, lengthy waiting lists and lower quality medical care for all of us, particularly for the elderly.
This physician shortage leads to massive and never-ending waiting lists. In 1993, for example, there was an average wait of 9.3 weeks from the time a patient got a referral from a general practitioner to the time he could see a specialist in Canada. By 1997, the wait was up to 11.7 weeks. Now it's 17.3 weeks -- over four months just to see a specialist!
In Canada, unions control the entire health care process. In Manitoba, for example, there is an eight-month wait for colonoscopies, yet the unions do not permit weekend or evening procedures, thereby extending the waiting lists.
The unions are doing to health care in Canada what they have done to education in America -- stifling creativity, reinforcing bureaucracy and extending waiting times.
Because of these long waits for colonoscopies, there is now a 25 percent higher incidence of colon cancer in Canada than in the United States. And, because the leading drugs that we routinely use to treat the malady in the U.S. are banned in Canada because of their high cost, 41 percent of Canadians who get the cancer die of it, compared with only 32 percent in the United States. Overall, the cancer death rate in Canada runs 16 percent higher than in the United States. Cancer does not wait for waiting lists to clear.
The potential of health care changes to shrink the doctor population, exacerbating scarcity and extending waits, is even worse now that it is apparent that we have overestimated the number of doctors in the U.S. Where we once thought there were 840,000 doctors, the total is now estimated to be only 760,000.
The proposed $400 billion cut in Medicare raises the probability that more and more of those doctors who do practice will refuse to accept Medicare patients, aggravating the doctor shortage among the elderly, the population that needs them the most.
As Obama's program moves through Congress, despite the fierce opposition of a majority of American voters in virtually all the polls, it becomes clear that those moderates who vote for it will face harsh retribution at the polls from their outraged constituents. A kind of suicide-pact mentality is gripping the Democratic majorities in Congress, akin to that which came over it when Congress passed President Clinton's tax package in 1993.
This disregard for the will of the marginal voter may make sense for those who come from safe districts -- it makes none for those who come from swing districts. For them, suicidal conduct leads to political demise.
Excellent article, with some actual numbers in it (however they need some references).
So for all of those who wish more UNCONSTITUTIONAL, expensive, more deadly, slow, medical care, you can go to Canada or enlist in the military so you can get Veteran’s Administration long, long, long waiting periods of socialized medicine without leaving this country (except to go fight).
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I don't know where Canada ranks in terms of physicians per capita. I do know that, in my city, there are lots of billboards advertising new MDs opening practices and looking for patients. I have never heard of union work rules stopping medical tests. The excuse we always hear is "lack of funding".
Throw this article in the garbage.
That said, I agree that the Pelosi proposal is unconstitutional and completely unworkable. I do not think it is possible to fit federal government health care onto 300 million people. It simply won't work.
In case anybody is interested the Canada Health Act that lays out the federal government's role in health care runs all of 3 pages. Compare that to what you are contemplating.
If CANADIAN Health Care is so very wonderful and of great benefit, why are HOSPITALS, CLINICS and DOCTORS in the northern tier of the USA filled with citizens of CANADA frantically seeking competent and TIMELY health care? I do NOT see Americans flocking to CANADA for health care. Neither are the airports crowded with ailing Americans flying to Europe, Cuba, and other wonderful places to gain life saving and giving care.
They're not.
There’s no evidence that the number of Canadians who cross the border to receive care in the U.S. is statistically significant. The definitive study was done nearly 10 years ago for Health Affairs, and it found “the number of Canadians routinely coming across the border seeking health care appears to be relatively small, indeed infinitesimal when compared with the amount of care provided by their own system.” In analyzing the data, they focused on “leading-technology” fancy procedures unavailable in Canada, medical campuses easier to access by Canadians based on geography, American care centers with sterling reputations, and Canadians or Americans who live part of the year in both countries. The results yielded… bupkis.
And there’s a certain leap of economic logic that most people fail to take into account when they buy into the myth of Canadian refugees fleeing their universal health care system: “Our results should probably not, on reflection, be surprising. Prices for U.S. health care services are extraordinarily high, compared with those in all other countries, and this financial barrier is magnified by the extraordinary strength of the U.S. dollar.”
http://healthcare.change.org/blog/view/traveling_for_care_--_outside_the_us
do NOT see Americans flocking to CANADA for health care. Neither are the airports crowded with ailing Americans flying to Europe, Cuba, and other wonderful places to gain life saving
updated 8:50 a.m. ET, Wed., Oct . 28, 2009
NEW YORK - These are heady days for the medical tourism industry. With U.S. healthcare prices spiraling upward, more and more insurers and individuals are looking abroad for treatment. By some estimates, 650,000 Americans will check into foreign hospitals from Mexico to Thailand this year.
As UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research determined in a recent study, “at least 952,000 California adults – 488,000 of them described by the study as Mexican immigrants and about a quarter as non-Latino whites – head south annually for their medical, dental and prescription services.” And why are they going, aside from the obvious concerns of cost and lack of insurance? See if this resonates with you: “Among non-Latino whites, prescription drugs were the most common medical service obtained in Mexico.” Yeah, that’s right. We have American citizens going to Mexico to take advantage of their health care.
http://healthcare.change.org/blog/view/traveling_for_care_--_outside_the_us
Throw this article in the garbage.
If you can't get the test who cares which excuse is being used?
Your proudness is conflicting your logic.
I did not say Canadian health care was perfect or even great. There are a lot of problems with it. I simply said that the article posted was full of errors and misconceptions.
One of the reasons Canadian health care works as well as it does is that Canadians are free to seek health care in the US. The health care authorities in Canada are also able to contract for care for patients in the US, and they do.
That said, people like yourself should spend less time attacking Canadian health care more time opposing what your leaders are trying to foist on you. Pelosi care is not anything near Canadian health care. You should be so lucky. They are planning SOVIET STYLE or CUBAN STYLE health care for you. It won't work anywhere near as well as the Canadian system.
bump for later
The article is full of misconceptions and misstatements. That’s all. I am not defending Canadian health care. READ AND COMPREHEND MY POSTS.
You got that right.
Overall, the cancer death rate in Canada runs 16 percent higher than in the United States.
If that were true how does one explain this
* For women, the average survival rate for all cancers is 61 percent in the United States, compared to 58 percent in Canada.
* For men, the average survival rate for all cancers is 57 percent in the United States, compared to 53 percent in Canada.
http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba596
Your compatriot disagrees.
Who cares? Monolithic thinking is not required, even on Free Republic.
I could go further as to why the present health care system in the US, and our proximity to the US allows Canada to have the health care system we do have, but I don't know if anyone is interested. Also, most Canadians don't want to admit it.
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