Mythbusting Canadian Health Care

Actual facts about Canadian health care? Thanks, Doc.

 

Great stuff. I wonder how many people who have medicare look down on the canadian system.

 

ROFLMAO!! I love it! A great article, with some humor in it!

 

What, no interest? This subject usually brings howls of protest and cries of Communism.

 

Hmmm. Yes, I understand the status wants to stay quo, and that's huge. As for people thinking health is for the doctors to deal with, well, that would explain a few things, wouldn't it?

 

My take from the article was that Canadians tend to take their health as a personal responsibility beacause of the way the system is set up - the fact that it provides basic coverage for all citizens without qualification. I think over time a similar attitude would develop among Americans particularly if it was encouraged via an "educational campaign" similar to the anti-smoking and seat belt campaigns from a few years (or decades? eeep!) back.

There would certainly be some expensive up-front costs in switching to the single-payer system and even harder cultural obstacles to overcome but benefits not only for our generations but our grandchildrens' and their following generations would be incredible. There's no reason why so many preventable medical related deaths have to occur in the US just because people can't afford health insurance or medical bills that aren't covered by their current insurance.

I've always felt the US has the best medical training and technology in the world and the worst access to it.

 

I was privileged to have a tiny little peek into the healthcare system in the US.
I spent a month running a doctor's office. Yup, just one month. It was enough for me.

The costs of being a doctor (this was a single-doctor practice, in a rather small town) are beyond belief. In hock to the local hospital which helped him get his practice set up, licensing costs, schooling costs, malpractice insurance costs, equipment leases, rent on the professional building space, utilities, payroll for his (really small) staff, plus the cost of using an appointment/billing service. He really did need to see about 18 patients a day just to stay in business.

What drove me nuts, though, was the drug dealers. Oh, excuse me, pharmaceutical representatives. Every flippin' day, at least 3 or 4 of these sharp salespeople show up, with a briefcase full of goodies for the staff, hoping to have a minute with the good doctor. Once a week, there was a lunch that the drug reps brought in, so that they could spend an hour selling their latest and greatest to the doctor, in hopes that he would write lots of prescriptions for it.

Make no mistake, the pharmaceutical companies are very, very big business, and the profit margins are huge.

If the Canadian type of system removes some of the continuous sales pitches, and the burden of dealing with an amazing array of insurance companies (I don't even want to go there!), then it absolutely CANNOT be anything but good.

Imagine, just for a moment, going to a doctor that can discuss alternative treatments, rather than just reaching for his prescription pad (which was a gift from a drug rep), and prescribing something that may earn him some credits towards a vacation. Hmm.

 

oh oh... great info but... my SO is one of the ones who "benefits" from medical insurance red tape as she works at an oncology center (a big one) processing claims.

she is currently doing yearly update of all patient files which means calling all insurance companies to check on any changes to their coverages...iow, to find out what they will pay for... this involves a lot of "convincing" and working as a patient advocate. she spends about 80% of her day on the phone to the insurance companies and claims that its the most frustrating thing she has ever done.

the amount of claims rejected are staggering and very few procedures performed by her office run cheap...in fact, some are simply ridiculously expensive

 

You have to wonder who's really running the system, and who benefits. It doesn't seem to be the doctors or the patients. And who cries loudest at proposed changes? The insurance companies, maybe? Hmm. Having an entire industry based on denying health care coverage is insane. In Canada, there's basically one insurer. The doctor submits his bills, and gets paid. There are a few minor restrictions, like having to actually see the patient, meeting a submission deadline, and making sure the services are covered and appropriate for the situation, but that's about it. Nobody spends their entire day on the phone trying to collect, and nobody makes a career out of rejecting claims based on the slightest of errors.

 

Let me just say that if a small country like Taiwan (population 23M) can have a successful government-run health care system and with minor loss from fraud and w/o huge tax on people, it is about time USA learn from other countries like Canada and Taiwan. Do you know how much an ultra-sound exam costs in US? US$500 or more. A similar Ultra-sound exam costs about US$20-30 in Taiwan. GNP of Taiwan is about 60% of USA. There is something seriously wrong about our health care system in America.

 

And that's the truth!

 

The low down on health care.

In the US we pay ~ double the G8 average. Do we have twice the care, on average?

We don't want to pay taxes for anything, (except "homeland security!)
We can't afford a single payer system! BS! We are already paying, we just don't call it a tax. Those that have employer based plans have it pretty good, as they get a pretty good break. Those that our truly poor use the ER as a replacement for a basic Doc. because no Doc can afford to treat them (I understand why!) The ER has to jack up the rates for the rest of us.
Those of us in the middle are the ones who get screwed! Our non discounted premiums are jacked to cover the cost of the ER visits, the uninsured, the discounted insured etc.

The average medical clinic in the US has a huge number of administrative staff, largely to bill different insurance co's. That is non productive overhead, as is the profit of the private insurers.

As long as the politico's are in the pockets of the insurance company's it is not likely to change. If they spent as much (per capita) in Canada as we do here in the states, they would have the worlds best health care!

The answer is not to spend more money, but to spend it wisely.

Vote for candidates that will work for genuine reform, not the kind of reform that brought us the Seniors RX drog plan, written and benefitting the RX co's.

Icarus

OBAMA '08

 

The staff at our local doctor's office has no medical insurance. It's just too expensive for a two-doctor practice in this area, so they do without. The doctors take care of the routine stuff, but that doesn't help with major problems. I find it very ironic.

Tom