ACROSS THE BORDER, COST-SPIRALING SYSTEM IS ABOUT TO CHANGE —AND MUST

buffalonews.com ^ | 8/10/09 | Harry W. Pope

[Nachum]

It is the sacred cow of Canadian politics, and those in power who think they will tinker with it do so at their peril. For while the Canada Health Act—the legislation that provides universal health care for all its citizens—is revered by Canadians, paradoxically it is also heavily criticized, as each new survey shows.

The term “crisis” tends to be overused today, but when applied to any medical or health report, people do take notice, as when it was recently estimated that some 5 million Canadians—about 850,000 of whom live in Ontario—do not have a family doctor. One quarter of the entire population is unable to get same-day access to a physician, while waiting lists for various treatments are said to cost $14 billion a year nationally in lost economic activity.

[ForeignDude]

So, let me get this straight:

Out of a population of about 34 million (or so), 5 million are not getting the care they have been promised since they don’t have a primary care physician (where the majority of treatment is given), and so must rely on emergency room care. That means that Canada’s much-vaunted “universal” health care system is failing 15% of its population.

In contrast, under the evil American system, 47 million people (out of a population of 300 million) are without health insurance and so must also rely on emergency room care for their medical needs. That equates to a 16% failure rate.

So, in exchange for sky-high taxation, Canadians get the PROMISE of “universal” health care with an underserved segment of the population that is proportionally the same as that evident in the U.S.

Hey, does Nancy P. know about this?

[netmilsmom]

I’m sure she does.

[q_an_a]

Great post. I wish more town hall videos had hard questions for congress about stories like this...where a cancer drup is stopped after some time, not some result. Then ask the congress person, “If Canada, Great Britian and now France are complaining of cost over runs, how is America going to be different?”