Last night I had the opportunity to talk with a Canadian about their health care system. It was a great discussion and unfortunately it was cut short. We were having dinner together and someone broke up the conversation with a toast, followed by another toast, and we never came back to the subject.
I'm going to point out that despite the negatives of the Canadian system, this guy very much liked the system because it broke his heart to read about American families that go bankrupt because a child gets sick. He likes the fact that it wouldn't happen in Canada.
First, I should point out that this guy is the CEO of a mining company with several gold mines. He was quite clear that he had an advantage that way because his family wasn't confined to the system. If anyone in his family needs treatment or surgery from a specialist, they drive into America to get that service.
Since he brought it up, I asked him if he thought the waiting times were getting worse. He said that they were. One thing that he attributed to this was the fact that there was a medical brain drain in Canada. Doctors are moving to America where they can pull better pay. Obviously, as the number of doctors decreases, the waiting times are going to increase.
On top of the emigration, I wouldn't be surprised if they have an outfit similar to our AMA that restricts the number of people allowed to become doctors. The AMA does it here to keep doctor pay artificially high.
Not part of the conversation but something that's worth pointing out in the great American health care debate is the fact that the battle isn't about affordable health care. No one is pretending at all that we are going to try and make health care more affordable. The entire debate seems to be centered around getting health insurance for everyone*.
Back to the children. He thought it was good that if you're kid gets sick at 2am, you just take them to the hospital or clinic and you don't worry about it financially because it's free.
"Is it free?" I asked.
Well, no, he said, adding that he thinks Canadians pay 10-15% more in taxes than Americans, which covers all government services including the "free" health care. I'm okay with this (you know, as far as the current system goes) so I didn't balk at the higher taxes. I wonder if the rest of America will feel the same way. Our health care system is extremely expensive and that money is going to have to come from somewhere if we are going to keep paying artificially high prices for doctors, hospitals, drugs, and insurance.
It was an interesting conversation. He liked the system because of a genuine concern for people but enjoyed the fact that he wasn't restricted to it. It made him feel good to know that everyone was getting *some* care.
I did have a couple of questions left so I'll ask them here in case I have any Canadian readers or readers familiar with the Canadian system:
The system is obviously getting worse. What can be done to fix it?
If it can't be fixed, what will happen when it breaks down or the waiting times become unacceptable to the general populace?
These are important questions as we get ready to jump into a Universal system ourselves. Maybe we can learn from them and keep our system afloat for a little longer (although I suspect that we are starting from the wrong place using private insurance companies but since they are the #2 lobby in America, you can be sure they aren't going anywhere by governmental edict).
* Everyone. The first concept for Universal health care in America was that all 40 million uninsured people would get insurance. In a subsequent bill, it was everyone except 2-3 million. In the last draft of the bill being discussed, it was everyone except 20 million people. It will be interesting to see what the final definition of "everyone" becomes.
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