This article has been posted to DoctorZin’s New News Blog! 
Posted on 08/16/2004 12:10:26 AM PDT by dila813
TORONTO (CP) - A growing number of Canadians are giving the country's health-care system a mediocre or failing grade, a report card by the organization representing Canada's doctors suggests.
"The report card shows that things are getting worse," said Dr. Sunil Patel, president of the Canadian Medical Association, which released the national poll to coincide with its annual meeting this week in Toronto. "Year over year, Canadians have identified that their confidence in their health-care system is eroding."
While the quality of medicare earned a B overall, the proportion of C and F grades jumped by eight percentage points compared with a similar poll commissioned by the CMA last year.
The Ipsos-Reid telephone poll, conducted July 9-12, posed a range of questions on attitudes towards health care to 1,057 Canadian adults, asking them to assign an A, B, C or F grade to various aspects of the system, with A the highest and F representing a failing grade.
Less than 60 per cent of respondents awarded Canada's most treasured social program the highest two grades, compared with 67 per cent last year and 65 per cent in 2001, the first year the association representing the country's 58,000 physicians commissioned the poll.
Patel said citizens are fed up with political wrangling between Ottawa and the provinces over how much money each should contribute to health care and who should control spending.
"Canadians have indicated that all levels of government must not only fund the health-care system appropriately, but must work together," said Patel, a family physician from Gimli, Man.
Last month, provincial health ministers called on Paul Martin's government to fund a national pharmacare plan. But the prime minister and federal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh have taken a scalpel to the idea, saying the country can't afford its estimated $7-billion to $12-billion annual price tag.
During a trip to Nunavut last week, Martin said his government supports a smaller-scale drug plan, but wants to use available funding to reduce waiting lists by creating a national home-care program and training more doctors.
"What we talked about during the (election) campaign was the question of catastrophic drug coverage," Martin said. "I think that's where the focus has to lie."
At least in part, those surveyed appear to agree.
"This is where it comes back to the poll," said Patel. Canadians "do not wish to see an expansion of the health-care system unless and until we address the No. 1 problem facing Canadians, which is the lack of doctors, nurses and technologists, and the waiting times getting worse."
Any prescription for improving health care must focus on improving essential services -hospital emergency care, shorter waits for surgery and prompt, comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of cancer, respondents indicated.
And the poll suggests most Canadians believe that Ottawa and the provinces have the means to do just that: almost three-quarters of respondents said the federal government is not pulling its weight financially, while 91 per cent said Ottawa can afford to put more dollars into the system.
But provincial governments weren't left unbloodied by the poll: 78 per cent said the provinces also are in a position to cough up more money.
At the same time, a majority of respondents said any increase in federal funding transferred to the provinces should come with conditions.
"Two out of three Canadians have said they wish to see more accountability, not less," said Patel. "They want the provinces, which administer health care, to be accountable for the monies that come from the federal government."
The survey also tried to take the pulse of Canadians' attitudes towards medicare's sustainability -whether it will remain intact for the next generation -compared with other aspects of the country's public infrastructure.
Just 45 per cent of respondents have faith their children or grandchildren will enjoy the same quality and service that they do today, the poll suggested.
That figure mirrors the lukewarm confidence they have in the future of the country's roads and highways, but is far below their belief in the preservation of emergency services, such as fire departments and ambulances (83 per cent), and education (60 per cent).
Even the future of the Canada/Quebec pension plan garnered more optimism, with half of respondents giving its sustainability an A or B grade.
"The confidence of Canadians is steadily declining," said Patel.
"They are getting worried. They do not believe the health-care system on the present track will be there for their children."
Canadians ranked their own contributions -adopting healthier lifestyles and using services more judiciously -and those of health professionals in keeping the heart of the system pumping, assigning health-care providers and hospitals with overall B grades, the poll suggested.
"They are saying the system has been held together by the monumental efforts of the health-care providers . . . whereas they've given a C or an F to governments because of either mismanagement or inadequate funding or poor efficiencies and too much wrangling in the political arena," said Patel.
The margin of error for the poll's overall findings is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Bush's Drug plan is bigger and provides more coverage that Canada's. This is a shocker for me.
Also a shocker, Medicare already provides for a catastrophic safety net for drugs for people in the US and Canada doesn't.
It seems to me, people in Canada wouldn't want to leave the hospital so they can keep getting free drugs.
It does not matter a hill of beans what level of government is paying for it, it all comes from the same taxpayers!!
Sounds like, I don't care who pays for it as long as it is provided. Maybe they would care if they realized that they are paying top dollar for poor care. All the rich Canadians go to the US for care.
If you think health care is expensive now, just wait unti it's "free".
The people pay for it. It should not be government run, government is not efficient nor does it care.
But.....but.....bringing socialized medicine to the U.S. is one of the core issues of the Kerry campaign.
If universal health care is a failure....... he'll look like a dork. (Opps! Too late. He already looks like a dork!)
Give them what they want. They won't mind the tax increase.
Socialism NEVER WORKS!,EVER! If you have a cold or flu, maybe you could survive the Canadian system, but need a heart bypass or cancer operation? They come to the US and use their suplemental insurance to get fixed. Even an MRI is a several week wait and several hundred mile drive in Canada I hear. Maybe you'll die before the diagnosis and save the taxpayer money before the appointment.
Yes, and this is what the dems want for us.
As a conservative, I'm not disposed to government-run programs. However, the facts speak for themselves.
Percentage of GDP spent on health care:
U.S.A. - 14.1%
Canada - 9.1%
Life Expectancy
U.S.A. - 77.26 years
Canada - 79.67 years
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