Quote:
Originally Posted by Vin
Or maybe there are less people contracting cancer in Canada.
By the way, life expectancy in Canada was ranked 18 (2015)
U.S. was ranked 43: Maybe the best quality healthcare but only for the super rich. You are lucky to be able to afford it. Canada definitely has better health care for the majority of its residents.
http://www.infoplease.com/world/statistics/life-expectancy-country.html |
You can't correlate life expectancy with health care systems. It doesn't really work that way. There are a WIDE variety of societal, nutritional, cultural, and other things that affect life expectancy.
A friend of mine did her nurse degree and got offered a job in the USA. She said, of Canada's medical system, that she feels much safer in a US hospital. She's filipino, and a very balanced person.
She mentioned that USA systems are much more advanced and their procedures are better, overall. People are more careful and the quality of care is considerably higher. She also states that medicare is fairly even for US residents... while care in general is more expensive, it's not just for the super rich there. She said there may be a class of lower-middle-class that suffer more as they're not poor enough to get the government to pay, but not middle-class enough to be able to pay for it themselves... but overall, people of all income levels get similar treatment.
Canadians often feel that their "
free" medical system is sacrosanct, but the truth is that it leads to awful wait times, inefficiencies, abuses, and poor service.
Japan has, perhaps, one of the most balanced and efficient systems in the world ( It's Japan are we surprised that it's efficient ). The system has its warts, but it's a hybrid co-pay system. For most treatments, you are required to pay 30% for some procedures ( and I believe 20% for some others ) and the government sets the cost of most treatments. It also covers dental, which is nice. This keeps the system affordable and efficient, without being abused or wasteful. When people get something for free, everyone stops caring. Doctors stop caring about giving the best treatment, because they're not dealing with
paying customers. People have lower expectations of doctors and don't hold them to a higher standard because it's not really perceived as coming out of their pockets directly. People have low expectations of free stuff.
I'll give you one example:
A few years ago my father-in-law ( Canadian Permanent Resident, Japanese citizen ) had to get eye surgery. He opted to fly to Japan... I think he'd still be on the wait list for a specialist here. There were two options.
We'll call them the "
GOLD" option and the "
SILVER" option.
The doctors explained that the "
GOLD" option is the more permanent solution, and a better ( more expensive ) procedure, but given his age, the "
SILVER" option is all he will probably need in his life.
I think the difference in cost ( to him ) was something like
$1000 vs.
$3000.
They gave him the choice.
In the USA, it's likely both of those procedures would have been far more costly, and the choice would likely have been dictated by:
- What your insurance company will cover
- How much money you have over what your insurance covers
YOU STILL GET MORE CHOICE
In Canada, you would
NOT be given a choice. The doctor would choose for you whatever is most efficient for the system based on what they think you need. And sure, they're the professional, but it takes control of your OWN health out of your hands. You can't even offer to pay the difference in Canada as that would show up the failures in the system.
If you are forced to pay a nominal fee for medical procedures, then you will definitely hold a medical practitioner to a higher standard. If a GP consistently is a jerk and doesn't treat his clients well, no way anyone is going to pay $20 to get him to diagnose a nagging cough. And you will find a GP will go a little further to really diagnose the problem. In addition, fewer people will show up to the emergency room to diagnose a cold. When you attach a VALUE to something, quality usually goes up and abuse goes down.
Canadians need to
GET OVER the idea that user fees are bad for your health. It's quite the opposite. The problem is that ANY changes in fee structure in Canada leads Canadians to think that their system is becoming Americanized, and that scares people to death.
And what about the people in poverty? Easy-peasy. Do the same thing that we do for MSP in BC. Tie it to income. If you don't have the money to pay, we got your back.
Back to my father-in-law... He chose the
SILVER level.
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