Do We Really Want Socialized Healthcare Like Canada
I know on the surface Canada’s healthcare is enviable, but it has many weaknesses
Yes, there’s little argument that current healthcare industry in the US is broken and needs a complete overhaul, but adopting socialized medicine is 180 degrees out from where we are. Let me show you some glaring differences using Canada as an example and then you can decide for yourself.
Every health care system has it’s strengths and weaknesses, including Canada’s. Per Dr. Daniela Martin, chief medical officer at Women’s College Hospital and professor at the University of Toronto, “To Canadians, the notion that access to health care should be based on need, not ability to pay, is a defining national value.” Who wouldn’t agree with this? Especially given the spiraling health care costs here in the US.
However, most Canadians understand their system requires trade-offs, including long wait times of months for certain procedures or treatments. And in order to protect its universal access, Canadian law forbids people from buying additional insurance to cover hospital care.
However this law has been fought since 2009' by Canadian doctors who are setting up private hospitals in both Canada and the US to offer elective surgeries and to reduce long waitlists filled with hundreds of people.
Dr. Brian Day says the Canadian system doesn’t offer enough coverage, noting that people still have to seek out private insurance for services not covered by the Canadian Health Act, such as dentistry, mental health care, or medications not prescribed in a hospital. Although he adds meds cost less than in the U.S.
He goes on to report that many people are dying while waiting for treatment, and he’s presented data that shows Canadian patients wait four times longer than patients in France; and he thinks those willing to pay should be able to get services sooner. “Even in Canada, the biggest detriments of health is wealth.”
In 2017', health expenses drove many Americans into bankruptcy than for any other reason, per the American Journal of Public Health. This is unheard of in Canada. However, efforts of late to improve Canada’s healthcare system are met with a complacent attitude from the natives who say, “at least it’s better than the U.S.” Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease and apparently Canadians aren’t demanding grease.
As of this year, per The Christian Post, funeral homes in Canada are performing assisted suicide services in their showrooms for a mere $700. “While Quebec saw only 63 Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) deaths in 2015–2016, the number rose to 3,663 in 2021–2022.”
Canada legalized MAID in 2016' but it was limited to citizens or permanent residents at least 18 years of age with serious and incurable disease, illness, or disability that included “enduring and intolerable” suffering. The Canadian Parliament expanded the law in 2022’ to patients with physical disabilities, intending to offer assisted suicide to people with mental illness by March, before the Canadian Government announced a temporary delay last December over concerns from doctors that this practice goes too far and is missing fundamental safeguards for vulnerable people.
At the current time the government is also considering whether or not people can get MAID if they wish to refuse medical treatment for serious illnesses such as cancer, which also has the medical community in an uproar because it goes against their medical practice standards.
The president of Quebec’s Society of Palliative Care Physicians, Olivia Nguyen, believes the situation in the Canadian province “raises complex ethical issues, including the monetization of death.” **An eye-opening report from the Parliamentary Budget Office of Canada’s states MAID has reduced healthcare costs for the country since 2016 by $86.9M dollars.
Once the gate is opened on assisted suicide, for instance, it leads to the situations Canada is facing now and that is where to draw a new line in the sand. It seems obvious to me that the Canadian Parliament didn’t brainstorm enough possible scenarios before they passed MAID, or they would have been able to avoid this quagmire.
As for myself, since I’m 72. I might consider MAID if I lived in Canada and received a diagnosis of stage 3 or 4 cancer and knew I’d have to get on a long waitlist to even start treatment.
So what do you think of Canada’s healthcare system? Are you ready to move north rather than stay in the U.S.A.? Hopefully at some point we will find a workable solution to our healthcare problems, one that won’t permit long delays for treatment, long wait times for surgeries, and won’t bankrupt us in the end.
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