A Canadian doctor diagnoses U.S. healthcare - Los Angeles Times »
Posted By Candida 5 months ago in Health & Fitness
Universal health insurance is on the American policy agenda for the fifth time since World War II. In the 1960s, the U.S. chose public coverage for only the elderly and the very poor, while Canada opted for a universal program for hospitals and physicians' services. As a policy analyst, I know there are lessons to be learned from studying the effect of different approaches in similar jurisdictions. But, as a Canadian with lots of American friends and relatives, I am saddened that Americans seem incapable of learning them.
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Candida
All my life I've had a thirst for knowledge, and I'm willing to learn from anyone, anywhere and anytime. I enjoy a good ...
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Newperson5 months ago
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A = all Canadians have insurance for hospital and physician services. There are no deductibles or co-pays. Most provinces also provide coverage for programs for home care, long-term care, pharmaceuticals and durable medical equipment.
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B = On the U.S. side, 46 million people have no insurance, millions are underinsured and healthcare bills bankrupt more than 1 million Americans every year.
Sounds like this speaks for it's self.
Good article. Thanks. -
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Candida5 months ago
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rbiii: "The Federal Government does not have the power to implement Universal Health Care / single payer / or any other type of Health Insurance program."
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You know what's funny? Canada does not have a health care system run by the federal government, the US does: Medicare and Medicaid. In Canada, health care is a provincial responsibility. All the federal government does is provide a framework within which those provincial plans have to operate if the province wants its share of federal dollars for health care.
"The Canada Health Act (CHA or the Act) is Canada's federal legislation for publicly funded health care insurance.
The Act sets out the primary objective of Canadian health care policy, which is "to protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well-being of residents of Canada and to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers."
The CHA establishes criteria and conditions related to insured health services and extended health care services that the provinces and territories must fulfill to receive the full federal cash contribution under the Canada Health Transfer (CHT).
The aim of the CHA is to ensure that all eligible residents of Canada have reasonable access to insured health services on a prepaid basis, without direct charges at the point of service for such services."
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hcs-sss/medi-assur/cha-lcs/...
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DarkWizard5 months ago
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Candida,
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Thank you for the invite and the article.
This article shows the perspective from outside our party's walls. We need to keep focused on health care reform and out maneuver the swift-boating and false advertising/claims of the opposition. -
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Redneck5 months ago
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Article is typical propaganda for Canadian health care.
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WHY do those who can come to the USA for medical treatment? It is the best and is readily available and NOT rationed!!!! People have been denied care by boards in Canada who then came to USA and were treated AND cured or at least helped when they would have died in Canada waiting for care!!!!-
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Candida5 months ago
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What the article says is true. It makes it clear that the Canadian system is not perfect, but that doesn't mean that one cannot learn from it.
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Yes, some Canadians do go to the US for treatment, although not nearly in the numbers that are never precisely quoted but always implied. There are many reasons for it:
- In some places, waiting times for elective surgery is long, so people who are not willing to wait may go to the US, especially if they are rich.
- Some people may trust some of the famous US doctors or hospitals more than their local doctors, and if they have enough money they may go there. The Premier of one of the provinces, for example, went down to Johns Hopkins Hospital, if I remember correctly, for cancer treatment. Not because it wasn't available in Canada, but because he trusted them more. He died just the same.
- Sometimes, and I know of one specific case, when the waiting time would be unreasonable, people are sent for treatment to the US and the Canadian insurance pays for it.
- Since most of the population of Canada is strung out in a thin line along the border, some Canadian villages and towns are closer to a major US center than to a Canadian one and in an emergency people may go to a US hospital, simply because it is closer.
When you talk about boards denying treatment, I don't know what you are talking about because I have never encountered any kinds of boards, and I'm not sure they exist. All the procedures covered by the plan are listed with prices attached and if your doctor decides that you need one of them, he/she simply provides it and bills the insurance; end of story. If it is not on the list, then you pay if it is available at all. Most things that are part of any kind of "normal treatment" are on the list, and it's all out in the open.
It does happen occasionally that someone wants some kind of procedure that is available in the US, but not in Canada. In that case I can imagine a board deciding whether it's experimental, necessary, etc., and whether it should be covered. These are rare exceptions and I don't see anything wrong with that. I'm sure that you wouldn't argue that if a procedure were available in Canada but not in the US, then US insurance companies would automatically approve it and pay for it. -
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spkguy4 months, 4 weeks ago
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Redneck
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"Article is typical propaganda for Canadian health care. "
Would you take the word of an American?
U.S. health care lies about Canada
Another American blowhard
Just who is this jerk, Rick Scott of propaganda-mongering Conservatives for Patients’ Rights? He and his group are fabricating negatives about Canada’s health care system and I resent this. I am an American who has lived in Canada for more than 35 years. I can vouch that the system is more than adequate and is not run by civil servants but by doctors who are able to treat everyone, rich or poor.
Mr. Scott, and other conservatives (code for rich) are against universal health care without any justification whatsoever. Their criticisms are in accurate and should not be broadcast.
Where are the ethics in network broadcasting? I saw one of Scott’s ads on CNN recently and wondered why the same curation of content was not imposed on CNN advertising messages as is upheld editorially. If CNN is unwilling to vet content, then where is the FCC?
Read the full article !
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/francis/a...
Btw...Her last paragraph pretty much sums it up...
Is Canada’s system perfect? No and nobody said it was. Networks should stop allowing propagandists to tell lies and any arguments about other countries’ practices should be ignored as totally irrelevant.
The United States is a rich and talented nation and it’s very upsetting to me, as an American, that it does not have the world’s best medical care for its citizens instead of one of the worst.
Americans deserve better.
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