Our health care system seems to be fine if you are discovered to have something serious. I received what I would consider good treatment for thymoma. OTOH, I have just been told that I can finally have knee replacement surgery after waiting since July, 2016. That’s nearly a year and a half, and not for something trivial, but for being able to function again.
People up here have no idea how expensive our system actually is because the payments are hidden, or called something else.
It's good to hear that Canadians can get urgent treatment on a timely basis.I recall years ago being in Florida in January and seeing a Canadian paper on the newsstand (half of Florida's "residents" in January are Canadians) with the headline "200 Cancer Patient To Be Sent To The US For Treatment".Presumably that was because of a shortage of doctors or hospital beds.
However...I believe that the citizens of a great country like Canada should be able to get things like cancer treatment *and* knee replacements done in a timely fashion.
But I can't vote there so it could be argued that my opinion means nothing at the end of the day.
“People up here have no idea how expensive our system actually is because the payments are hidden, or called something else.”
That is because hospitals (as you probably know quite well) are basically closed union shops run by CUPE or OPSEU or AUPE. The clerical and janitorial staff at such places typically earn more than their private sector counterparts. That is the major reason why no politician in this country dares to take on the whole system even armed with the truth because of the unions and their money and how media up here long ago framed the narrative about this debate (any changes to favour doctors and patients and freedom of choice is American or un-Canadian).