Free Republic

Health Care Systems: A return to private health care is rising from the grass roots north of the border. While we rush headlong toward socialized medicine, Canadians are saying, "No, thanks — been there, done that." We recently told the story of Ava Isabella Stinson, born 13 weeks premature at St. Joseph's hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. She weighed all of two pounds and had no time to be put on a waiting list. But there were no open neonatal intensive care beds for her at St. Joseph's or anywhere else in the entire province of Ontario it seems. Canada's perfectly...

Barack Obama has a high opinion of the Canadian single-payer health-care system. In March, he lamented that the only thing separating us from Canada’s system was our “legacy” of employer-based health care, and of course free markets and private contracting, neither of which have been allowed in Canada. That may account for why Canada’s system, in an effort to reduce wait times, now contracts with American providers across the border: Hospitals in border cities, including Detroit, are forging lucrative arrangements with Canadian health agencies to provide care not widely available across the border.

On Sunday evening, NewsBusters colleague Noel Sheppard highlighted a health care-related story from the Canadian Press (CP), which is that country's rough equivalent to the USA's Associated Press. It appears that the CP is more open to reporting inconvenient news than is "our" AP, judging from a report earlier that day by the CP's Jennifer Graham. In an interview with Graham, the incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association said that the supposedly idyllic wonderland known as Canadian medical care is in deep trouble. Lo and behold, Graham actually reported it: The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says...

Medical Care: A leaked report shows that Vancouver's health authority is considering cutting thousands of surgeries to balance the budget. However organized, government-run health care inevitably leads to rationing.Defenders of ObamaCare continually point out that their plan is not like Canada's, that holding that country's system up as an example of impending medical doom is invalid. Canada's system is different. Instead of having a single national plan, Canada's national health insurance, a kind of public option, is composed of 13 interlocking provincial and territorial plans, all framed under the Canada Health Act. But based on a report leaked to the...

Before Americans adopt Canadian-style health care regulations, we might want to ask Canadian doctors what they think of their system. The Canadian Medical Association gathered for its annual meeting on Sunday. Warnings from doctors to our north are important to dispel the Obama administration's claim that its government takeover is a way to get costs under control. "We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize. We know that there must be change," said Dr. Anne Doig, the Canadian Medical Association's incoming president, in an interview with the Canadian...

As President Barack Obama scours the U.S. to drum up support for reforming healthcare, the Washington Post (among others) says the White House may be willing to dump its government-run insurance plan. If so, this will have the duel effect of encouraging opponents of Obama’s goal to create a cheaper, non-profit, government-sponsored health plan for the 40 to 50 million Americans presently with no health insurance, while alienating liberal-left Democrats who seek to emulate a Canadian health system. Looked at from the outside, it’s hard to see Obama succeeding. Americans have been so conditioned for so long against anything resembling...

Vancouver, Canada’s health authority is mulling skipping over more than 6,000 surgeries in an effort to close a $200 million budget shortfall, according to a report in the Vancouver Sun. The excised procedures would include a host of neurosurgeries, treatment for vascular diseases and other medically necessary procedures -- leaving patients waiting long periods of time for their backordered operations, said Canadian health critic Adrian Dix.

"We spend more on health care than most other countries." "We need to bring costs down." To address these complaints, enter ObamaCare -- which may or may not include a "public option" or a taxpayer-assisted "co-op" to keep insurance companies "honest." But do countries with government-run health care succeed in retaining high quality while "bringing costs down"? What about England? Civitas, a nonpartisan British think tank, recently scolded the British National Health Service (NHS) for "putting the patient last." Why? Civitas blames the government-run health care system's monolithic nature, lack of competition, and the burdensome and wasteful regulation, redundancy, oversight...

VANCOUVER — Vancouver patients needing neurosurgery, treatment for vascular diseases and other medically necessary procedures can expect to wait longer for care, NDP health critic Adrian Dix said Monday. Dix said a Vancouver Coastal Health Authority document shows it is considering chopping more than 6,000 surgeries in an effort to make up for a dramatic budgetary shortfall that could reach $200 million. “This hasn’t been announced by the health authority … but these cuts are coming,” Dix said, citing figures gleaned from a leaked executive summary of “proposed VCH surgical reductions.” The health authority confirmed the document is genuine, but...

A comedian once said that visiting Canada was like rummaging in your attic. “You go up there and say ‘Wow, there’s all this neat stuff up here! There are mountains and rivers and cities.’ ” And a parliament and a television network. It is a fact of life — whether sad or not I leave to readers — that most Americans have no strong feelings about our northern neighbor because we often forget entirely that Canada exists. Having just returned from a nine-day trip to “Beautiful British Columbia” (it’s on their license plates), I can attest that there is much...

The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country's health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it. Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country - who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting - recognize that changes must be made. "We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press. "We know that there must be change,"...

While Barack Obama continues to hail Canada’s health-care system as a model for the US to follow, its own constituencies warn that it’s nearing a collapse. Saying that a “health care revolution has passed us by,” the president of the Canadian Medical Association wants a major change to eliminate long wait times and inject creativity back into the hidebound system. Dr. Robert Ouellette wants to use competition to do it:

SASKATOON–The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says Canada's health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it. Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care, and she adds that physicians from across the country – who will gather in Saskatoon today for their annual meeting – recognize that changes must be made. "We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doig told The Canadian Press.

Health Reform: A critically ill premature baby is moved to a U.S hospital to get the treatment she couldn't get in the system we're told we should emulate. Cost-effective care? In Canada, as elsewhere, you get what you pay for.Ava Isabella Stinson was born last Thursday at St. Joseph's hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. Weighing only two pounds, she was born 13 weeks premature and needed some very special care. Unfortunately, there were no open neonatal intensive care beds for her at St. Joseph's — or anywhere else in the entire province of Ontario, it seems.

The Canadian health plan remains our most popular government program. However, if we could start over, we could transform a very good system into a great one. Our main obstacle to reform is the very success of the system to date. Politicians admit privately that reforms are needed but they hesitate to speak out. This does not make for thoughtful debate. Most problems stem from one cause. From the beginning, we ignored advice and made taxes the single source of funding. But there never are sufficient revenues for an open-ended system. This is why we struggle with scarcity of staff...

ER waits turn into three days Article Tools Print By SHAWN BERRY berry.shawn@dailygleaner.com Published Thursday January 25th, 2007 Appeared on page A1 Some patients are spending up to three days in the emergency room as the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital deals with a bed shortage. All 303 beds at the hospital are occupied and there were 17 patients in the ER on Wednesday night, said Geri Geldart, chief nursing officer. "All throughout the month of January ... we had as many as 10 or 15 patients waiting for one, two and sometimes three days in the emergency department," she...