Posted on 05/31/2010 5:21:49 PM PDT by SmartInsight
Pressured by an aging population and the need to rein in budget deficits, Canada's provinces are taking tough measures to curb healthcare costs, a trend that could erode the principles of the popular state-funded system.
British Columbia is replacing block grants to hospitals with fee-for-procedure payments and Quebec has a new flat health tax and a proposal for payments on each medical visit -- an idea that critics say is an illegal user fee.
In some ways the Canadian debate is the mirror image of discussions going on in the United States.
Healthcare in Canada is delivered through a publicly funded system, which covers all "medically necessary" hospital and physician care and curbs the role of private medicine.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Socialist medicine failed every place it was implemented, so the Dems shoved it down the throat of the American people, despite their objections.
We must vote in a Republican Congress and repeal Obamacare!
Another, different article on the same subject, with complementary information, posted by Libloather:
Canada: A hard look at the cost of health care (lifeblood sucking, aging population in crosshairs) by Christina Blizzard
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2524846/posts
keep
This cluster-Canuck is coming to America. Elections have consequences.
We must vote in a Republican Congress.
And they must repeal Obamacare.
Or we will get somebody who will.
I hope the Republicans understand this. I worry that they don't.
Being a Canadian, I tried to let them know this was happening,at the Huffington Post, in some discussions. I was called a liar and was booted for being too “anti-universal HC”
I wonder what they think now?
They don't think.
Dunno what action will be taken, but there's some speculation the patients are going to have to increase the portion they contribute.
Stupid demoRATs have no idea what they're in for.
We have a wonderful health care system here if: (a) you have a family doctor, (b) you need emergency care in a major urban centre, or (c) you have only minor or life threatening ailments.
There are hundreds of thousands of people (equates to millions in US terms), who do not have a family doctor, including me (I lost mine when I had to relocate to another province and the waiting list in this city is a minimum of five years - which means 5 to 8 hour waits at an after hours clinic or hospital emergency room).
Very few communities outside of the cities have adequate emergency room services. They are under staffed, under equipped and capable of handling only basic cardiac arrest and broken bone issues. Most trauma cases have to be immediately taken to the cities, often hundreds of miles away.
We do a great job of major surgery of an emergent nature, such as angioplasty, heart bypass, accident trauma, cancer removal. However, any major surgery which is not critical, can lead to waits of a few months to over a year. Hip replacements, knee replacements, eye cataracts, many heart bypass operations. Diagnostic procedures are also significantly delayed for cost control reasons, eventhough there are machines laying idle for long periods each day.
The simple reality is that the government ban on private surgical care has created a cap on supply which has caused significant rationing and has not controlled costs. The government is prepared to let people die in order to preserve the socialist notion of “equal” health care, ignoring the fact that the upper middle class, rich and connected (including politicians) can jump on a jet to the US and buy their health care while the rest of us rot on the queue. Socialism always leads to inequities far more severe than those which result from capitalism. And, unlike capitalism, you can’t work harder in a socialist system to get ahead. All you can do is try to join the party in power and hope to get preferential treatment ahead of the unwashed masses.
I’m in the same situation. No family doctor. I’ve been on a waiting list for a couple of years. I have been phoned about an available spot a couple of times, but asked that they give it to someone in greater need. I’m in relatively good health for now, but not getting the annual check-ups I should be getting.
....and socialism fails once again....go figure!
There are so many unintentional gems in this article, it’s hard to know where to start. Here’s a couple...
“”Why are we paying more or the same for cataract surgery when it costs substantially less today than it did 10 years ago? There’s going to be a finer look at what we’re paying for and, more importantly, what we’re getting for it,” he said.
Other problems include trying to control independently set salaries for top hospital executives and doctors and rein in spiraling costs for new medical technologies and drugs. “
Gee, they’re finally realizing that you need a competitive market to figure out the price of things? You can’t just arbitrarily set them?
“The losers could be drug companies and pharmacies, both of which are getting increasingly nervous.
“Many of the advances in healthcare and life expectancy are due to the pharmaceutical industry so we should never demonize them,” said U of T’s Golden. “We need to ensure that they maintain a profitable business but our ability to make it very very profitable is constrained right now.””
So they get to decide what’s very, very profitable - but they still want the medical advances.
“”If it’s absolutely free with no information on the cost and the information of an alternative that would be have been more practical, then how can we expect the public to wisely use the service?”
But change may come slowly. Universal healthcare is central to Canada’s national identity, and decisions are made as much on politics as economics.
“It’s an area that Canadians don’t want to see touched,” said TD’s Burleton. “Essentially it boils down the wishes of the population. But I think, from an economist’s standpoint, we point to the fact that sometimes Canadians in the short term may not realize the cost.””
They will find out soon, how hard it is to take away so called “freebies”.
So Canada is going to copy the Pre-ObamaCare-Socialist Health Care while the USofA attempts to copy Socialist Canada.
At least we can drive across the border to the Canadian Hospitals [and American doctors??] just like they used to do, to get good health care.
We Must Not Relax After The November Elections. We Must Keep The Pressure On Our Elected Officials To Do The Constitutionally Correct Thing.
One of the main reasons that Canada’s Tax Freedom Day is in June, compared to the American April 9th.
According to the Tax Freedom Chart of all countries, America still has the first date of all listed.
Except that Americans have nowhere to run to, unless you count Mexico.
They just didn’t try hard enough! We will do better!!!!
How naive! If it is free to the patient, he/she isn't going to care how much it costs the government. Hasn't she heard of the Tragedy of the Commons?
bump
Thanks for the ping, Civ.
Clive, Canada ping.
Thanks for the ping, fanfan.
You’re welcome Clive.
Having a good summer?
I recently went to the local hospital to pick up my prescription of tamoxifen prior to going to ID for a month and since I have severe osteoporosis I figured I should get an x-ray of my left wrist to ensure I had not broken it since I knew I would not be able to afford the cost of the x-rays in ID. I sat and waited at the ER for over 4 hours and there were only 2 other patients in the time I was there. When I was finally called in I was given a lecture of how I should go to my family doctor and not waste the time of the ER staff since the family doctor is paid $22.50 per visit while the ER doctor is paid $350 per hour. They grilled me for over an hour and I was shocked thinking I had awoken in a communist country and was public enemy number one. I’m not too popular at that hospital to begin with because I launched an investigation into over $2208 U.S. worth of insulin which they never returned to me in June of 09. In Feb of this year a nurse in the ER contacted me to advise me there was insulin in a bag in the fridge in the E.R. but it was a type which I was no longer using. When I asked about the other insulin she went back and looked and came back to tell me it was NOT in the bag. It is downright scary when doctors make a decision to break the law and then treat the patient like a criminal to cover up their own actions! B.C. plans to operate tourism based medical care and God help anyone who takes them up on such a plan after all the experiences I have had with Inferior Health here in B.C. I am currently waiting for a new shoulder and have been doing so since October of last year. I don’t know when or where that surgery will take place I only know that every day I go without the surgery I lose more hope of regaining full function of my dominant arm. Healthcare in B.C. is a joke just like it’s government is, afterall the Health Minister previously was Minister of the Forestry and it is his bright idea to begin offering medical tourism. 4 days in hospital would cost an American $30,000 and an ambulance trip of less than a mile would cost $580 because that is what they billed me eventhough I am a Canadian citizen! Many of the doctors at this Regional Hospital are quite inferior as well and are disgruntled with their paycut from $250,00/yr down to $165,00/yr because their on call time has been cut from being at the hospital within 20 minutes to a two hour maximum. Our medical system is broken and so will that of the U.S. if something drastic doesn’t happen to change it!
Did you notice any weird dreams while taking tamoxifen?
Never had any weird dreams and have been on it for almost a year now, will have four more years to go after September but hope to spend those years in ID. Believe me it’s a long story on both sides of the border and I was in tears as I waved to my hubby who was diagnosed with cancer exactly one year to the day after I was. He is receiving treatment in ID, while the state refused me treatment, they would NOT accept the receipt for a green card and processing for said green card would take 3 years at the NE processing center. I had no choice but to return to Canada. It’s been a long, difficult year for both of us, especially with so much interference from my mother. I would have stayed in ID if not for the needed new shoulder which was caused by a fall here in Canada in October on a city sidewalk which more resembled a gravel road.
Don,t get old. Don’t get sick. If you don,t fit in the envelope you wont get treatment. Like in the old days, if you get sick you die. Where is the progress. Thanks ponziism.
You nailed littleharbour
There’s not much difference between, dying to wait and waiting to die.
You nailed littleharbour
There’s not much difference between, dying to wait and waiting to die.
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