But they have free healthcare
No, they don’t. It’s far from free. When I was there, sales tax was 15% set aside for their system. That’s not free. The Canadian socialized healthcare system has some issues:
But more and more Canadians are awakening — not from a dream — but from a nightmare. The results are coming in. After years of government-controlled health care, the ordinary Canadian patient is noticing his health care system is ailing badly. Plus it’s bleeding money — his hard-earned tax dollars.
Comparing Canada with other industrialized countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that provide universal access to health care, a study released by The Fraser Institute in May revealed that Canada spends more on its system than other nations while ranking among the lowest in several key indicators, such as access to physicians, quality of medical equipment, and key health outcomes.
The study identifies one of the major reasons for this discrepancy. Unlike other countries in the study that outperformed Canada — such as Sweden, Japan, Australia, and France — Canada outlaws virtually all private health care. If the government says it provides a medical service, it’s illegal for a Canadian citizen to pay for and get the service privately. In practice, this means a patient must linger in line for hospital treatment — an average of 17.7 weeks in 2003, according to an annual survey on hospital waiting list published by the Fraser Institute.
There’s more on how not good their system is.
Update: More here.
June 14th, 2004 at 11:58 am
I wonder how many wealthy Canadians fly south to the USA to receive medical treatment vs waiting 6 mos for minor surgery etc…?
June 14th, 2004 at 3:49 pm
The problem, it seems, is not with socialized health care, then, but with this:
Seems like if you fixed that part of it, it would go a long way toward repairing the system. After all, there are other nations (mentioned in the story) that do a lot better job of this than Canada does.
Of course, having the right to pay to bypass the 17 week waiting list only does you good if you can actually afford to pay for the service out of your own pocket — a luxury the vast majority of citizens (here and there) don’t have. Most Americans can’t afford to pay for health services that their health plans don’t cover (assuming they’re lucky enough to have a health plan). So yeah, it’s nifty that I have a right to go where I want to go and all that, but it does me little practical good.
June 14th, 2004 at 11:14 pm
The Fraser Institute isn’t the most credible organization in the world, IMHO. They definitely have a right-ward ideological bent (well right for Canada).
I read their report last year and found their methodology for comparing the costs between countries to be flawed. Basically, they unilaterally decided that the differences between two countries health care costs could be compared if you adjusted the amount spent based on the proportion of the population that is over 65. So a country where 20% of the population is over 65 can spend twice as much on healthcare as a country with 10% of their population over 65 and be considered to be spending the same on an “age-adjusted” basis or whatever they called it. The problem with this of course is that it ignores the fact that those under 65 also cost the system some amount of money and it furthers their cause because Canada happens to have a fairly low percentage of people over 65 and a lot of baby boomers who are little younger, but still cost the system a comparable amount as those over 65 and skews the statistics.
Also, much of Canada’s fiscal problems like the 15% sales tax has more to do with accumulated debt than health care. If memory serves, the Canadian and US governments spend about the same on health care as % of GDP. Canada just gets more bang for its buck.
June 16th, 2004 at 8:35 am
Canadian Health Care
Via SayUncle I found a couple columnists going over the latest results of a poll in Canada. Result: a 51% majority of Canadias prefer a two-tier system that provides public healthcare yet still allows private healthcare. The reason is simple:…
July 10th, 2004 at 10:01 pm
As A Canadian I dispute any poll that says a majority of Canadians want a two-tier healthcare system. There isnt a political party in the country that advocates for this (including our right-wing ones).
Although, the system is expensive and is in need of fixing, but we’ve just had an election, with the winning party basing their entire themem on Health Care Waiting Lists. Polls continually indicate that our $200billion healthcare system is one of Canadians most cherished assets.
Also for the 15% sales tax: it varies from province to province. Only 7% is applied by the federal government (GST) and any other percentage (e.g. Ontario @ 8% or Alberta at 0% is applied by the provincial government). The GST was introduced in the early 90’s to combate the deficit. (Which has been mostly succesful, we’ve had 7 balanced federal budgets in a row, with makes us the only G8 Nations to have a balanced budget and have done it consecutivly so many times).
October 21st, 2004 at 3:25 pm
As a Canadian student, I personally believe in two-tier healthcare. I don’t like waiting 4 hours in the hospital (from arrival to diagnosis) to see a crisis interventionalist if I’m about to commit suicide. And I don’t like waiting 2 months to get a checkup. That’s just plain stupid.
October 29th, 2004 at 3:25 am
From what I hear, the problem is with doctors migrating to the U.S. where salaries are very very high. So…if the U.S. adopted the same system, everyone in both countries would get free healthcare with shorter waiting times. The doctors would make as much as a normal person, and the only real losers would be the blood-sucking insurance companies.