Perhaps the solution is to somehow compel a number of years of service in Canada, perhaps through contracts or charging high tuition fees which are forgiven after minimum service time is fulfilled. One very innovative solution I've heard proposed is to simply tax Canadian doctors who leave Canada, say an extra 10 or even 20% of their income, should they choose to practise abroad. This way, they can practise where they want and the costs sunk into their training are recovered through steep taxes on their large incomes. It is also an excellent incentive to stay at home.
But don't you think the lower Canadian wages are related to socialized medicine?
Perhaps the solution is to somehow compel a number of years of service in Canada,
Or, better yet, build an iron curtain around your country to keep all the patients and doctors inside. It worked in the Soviet Union for years.
Possibly, but I don't think so. If you want to see a Canadian doctor, the best chance is to take a cruise, particularly in Nov and Dec. Canadian doctors who can't practice at home because of financial limits there often show up as ship's doctors. They get free passage for themselves and their families in exchange.
I think Canada would be better off to find a system where the doctors could work full time, all year round. It makes no sense to train the doctors and then limit the amount of time they can work.
Your AVERAGE "Back Surgeon" has spent 12 years in "public School," 4 years in College, 4 years in Medical School, & 6-8 years in "Training" to be a "Neurosurgeon."
AND you want to FORCE this individual to "Care For" You're Aunt with a Backache??
LOOK; IF "The People" wish to have "Cheap, Government-Funded Medical Care," They are ENTITLED to have WHAT THEY PAY FOR!!
If "The People" want to have EXPERT MEDICAL CARE by Exquisitely Trained Medical Experts, then they HAVE TO PAY FOR the COST of that Training.
There is NO "Free Lunch!!"
As a "Country GP," I deliver Tens of Thousands of Dollars Worth of Free care to my Patients each year--Mostly as "Free Samples" given to me to Distribute to my Indigent Patients by the various Drug Companies, but also as "Free or Reduced Fee" services to our Indigent Patients.
NONE of this "Free CARE" EVER gets "Recorded by" ANY Government Entity. We Do "IT" because the Patients' NEED it.
We (& the Drug Companies) get NO credit for our Charity.
Just Projecting a FRACTION of our "Free Care" across America; I can Honestly, Humbly, & Conservatively estimate that there is SEVERAL BILLION DOLLARS worth of Medical Care UNRECORDED in our Nation each year.
If & WHEN the "HMO'S" are "Held to Account for" Their--often Medically Irrational--"savings," there will be Numerous Instances of MALPRACTICE-by-Insurance which have Harmed or KILLED Patients.
Individual Humans are SO DIFFERENT that there can be NO "Formula" for ANY Human "Condition."
The "Great Insurance Companies" have made the "Fatal Error" to assume that All "Humans" are the Same--that "Drug A" has the SAME EFFECT on "Patient A, as on Patient B!!"
The BEST any "Insurance Company can do is to "Go Back to "Actuary," because--in LARGE NUMBERS--we DO "act Similarly!!"
Doc