Posted on 07/09/2012 7:29:18 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Among the consequences of poor access to health care in Canada is the reality that some Canadians will ultimately receive the care they require outside of the country. Some of these patients will have been sent out of country by the public health care system due to a lack of available resources or the fact that some procedures or equipment are not provided in their home jurisdiction.
Others will have chosen to leave Canada in response to concerns about quality (Walker et al., 2009); to avoid some of the adverse medical consequences of waiting for care such as worsening of their condition, poorer outcomes following treatment, disability, or death (Esmail, 2009); or simply to avoid delay.
Understanding how many Canadians receive their health care in another country each year gives some insight into the state of health care in Canada, as well as the state of medical tourism among Canadian residents.
Data on this topic are not readily available but an estimation is possible using annual wait times data from the Fraser Institute and the numbers of procedures performed in Canada from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).
An estimated count of patients leaving Canada In 2011, a significant number of Canadians—an estimated 46,159—received treatment outside of the country. Increases between 2010 and 2011 in the estimated number of patients going outside Canada for treatment were seen in British Columbia (5,565 to 9,180), Saskatchewan (943 to 1,221), Manitoba (933 to 1,436), New Brunswick (282 to 526), Nova Scotia (851 to 1,271), Prince Edward Island (44 to 54), and Newfoundland and Labrador (130 to 433). Ontario (23,192 to 18,172) saw a decrease in the estimated number of patients who received treatment outside Canada.
(Excerpt) Read more at fraserinstitute.org ...
In other words, get it done now while you still can. That's my motivation.
The dollar is still worth something, medical care is still fairly inexpensive and most in the profession still like their jobs, but not for long...
The progressives have ruined everything they touch and they just made medicine "free"...what could go wrong?
Pretty soon, the Canadians will have to be medical tourists somewhere else because their neighbor to the south will be exactly like them when it comes to healthcare.
I remember a conversation with a Canadian about 4 years ago who liked to vacation in Cuba and thought the place a paradise, unfairly maligned by the US government.
If Cuba is the paradise you describe, why do people consistently risk their lives to escape?
The guy was a militant leftist so I didn’t waste any energy trying to change his opinion. He was a British immigrant to Canada but I suppose there are many native-born Canadians who think the same way.
My wife works at a doctor’s office just south of the Canadian border, and a good chunk of their clientele are Canadians paying cash out-of-pocket for procedures they simply can’t wait on their healthcare system to provide.
Yet even so called “conservatives” in Canada look smugly on as though we have the “best system in the world”.
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