It's cheaper to pay out of pocket than to go though my insurance.

[L88]

Primary healthcare in Canada is in crisis. One in six Canadians report not having a regular family physician, and less than half of Canadians are able to see a primary care provider on the same or next day.1,2 The consequences are significant in terms of the stress and anxiety foisted upon Canadians in need of care as well as the risks flowing from limited diagnoses and referrals for potentially life-threatening conditions. In addition, there are the costs for hospitals (and stress for staff) resulting from visits to the emergency room for issues that would be better treated in primary care. Although a number of jurisdictions have seen worsened access to primary care resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada’s access issues have compounded over time. A 2020 Commonwealth Fund survey found that 39% of Canadian respondents had visited the Emergency Room (ER) in the past two years, for a condition that could have been treated by a doctor, had one been available. Canada tied with the United States as the worst performer on this metric, among the 11 countries surveyed. 3 There is, further, a significant equity dimension to these access challenges, with racialized and lower income adults reporting disproportionately that they lack a family doctor

Canada’s primary care crisis: Federal government response - PMC

Primary healthcare in Canada is in crisis. One in six Canadians lack a regular family physician and less than half of Canadians are able to see a primary care provider on the same or next day. The consequences are significant in terms of the stress ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Threegoofs]

. Canada tied with the United States as the worst performer on this metric, among the 11 countries surveyed. 3 There is, further, a significant equity dimension to these access challenges, with racialized and lower income adults reporting disproportionately that they lack a family doctor.

Love how your argument boils down to the fact that Canadas healthcare system is SO BAD that it’s….

Tied with the United States.

 

[L88]

Love how your argument boils down to the fact that Canadas healthcare system is SO BAD that it’s….

Tied with the United States.

Canada lousy system is not the answer.
We should look at the Bismark model.
It could be phased in the way our current system is now.
And I don't know of anybody in the US waiting over 6 Months for knee, hip or cataract surgery.

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

Canada lousy system is not the answer.
We should look at the Bismark model.

Indeed, why should those who are not employed have any healthcare?

It could be phased in the way our current system is now.

Indeed, and the high-risk, high cost, people would be the first ones that the healthcare insurance companies wouldn't touch UNLESS the premiums were cranked up.

And I don't know of anybody in the US waiting over 6 Months for knee, hip or cataract surgery.

Obviously you don't know anyone who has an income above the poverty line and doesn't have either medical insurance.or (about) $40,000 is spare change lying about.

 

[L88]

Facing these onerous conditions, Canadian doctors are quitting the business. Nearly 20% of family doctors in Toronto are planning to shut their doors in the next five years, according to a study published in the journal Canadian Family Physician. Many are citing burnout as their reason for doing so.

The Canadian Medical Association estimates some 5 million Canadians did not have a primary care provider in 2021. The Children's Hospital of Recent Ontario was so short-staffed this winter that the Canadian Red Cross needed to send reinforcement doctors.


To add insult to injury, this shoddy "free" care actually costs Canadians a pretty penny. A typical family of four paid a whopping $15,847 in taxes just to cover the cost of public health insurance, according to research from the Fraser Institute.


The Canadian health tax burden has surged in recent years. A childless couple who paid $8,225 in taxes for public coverage in 1997 pays around $15,229 today — an 85% increase.

Not even these hefty taxes can keep Medicare running smoothly. Provincial leaders are asking the Canadian government to cover 35% of healthcare costs, up from the 22% they currently cover. But 57% of Canadians say the current spending rate is already unsustainable, and experts agree. As Steven Staples, national director of policy and advocacy for the Canadian Health Coalition, put it, increasing funding to Medicare at this point is like "pouring hot water into a leaky bathtub."

Close The Border To Canadian Health Care

Canada's healthcare system was once the country's pride and joy. But as the program enters its seventh decade, public opinion is starting to turn.

www.google.com

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

Facing these onerous conditions, Canadian doctors are quitting the business. Nearly 20% of family doctors in Toronto are planning to shut their doors in the next five years, according to a study published in the journal Canadian Family Physician. Many are citing burnout as their reason for doing so.

The Canadian Medical Association estimates some 5 million Canadians did not have a primary care provider in 2021. The Children's Hospital of Recent Ontario was so short-staffed this winter that the Canadian Red Cross needed to send reinforcement doctors.


To add insult to injury, this shoddy "free" care actually costs Canadians a pretty penny. A typical family of four paid a whopping $15,847 in taxes just to cover the cost of public health insurance, according to research from the Fraser Institute.


The Canadian health tax burden has surged in recent years. A childless couple who paid $8,225 in taxes for public coverage in 1997 pays around $15,229 today — an 85% increase.

Not even these hefty taxes can keep Medicare running smoothly. Provincial leaders are asking the Canadian government to cover 35% of healthcare costs, up from the 22% they currently cover. But 57% of Canadians say the current spending rate is already unsustainable, and experts agree. As Steven Staples, national director of policy and advocacy for the Canadian Health Coalition, put it, increasing funding to Medicare at this point is like "pouring hot water into a leaky bathtub."

Close The Border To Canadian Health Care

Canada's healthcare system was once the country's pride and joy. But as the program enters its seventh decade, public opinion is starting to turn.

www.google.com

That $15,229 in taxes works out to the couple having an income of around $85,000 if ALL of their taxes went to the healthcare system.

Since around 28.8% of the Canadian budget goes for healthcare, that means that the couple paid around $52,875 in total taxes and that means that the couple had an income of around $180,000.

It's really too bad that some people simply can't do basic research and/or arithmetic.

PS - The author of the article doesn't appear to actually exist.

PPS - I do want to point out one "minor" error in the article and that is that "private healthcare" is NOT "illegal" in Canada. After that "minor" error, the logic goes downhill.

 

[L88]

That $15,229 in taxes works out to the couple having an income of around $85,000 if ALL of their taxes went to the healthcare system.

Since around 28.8% of the Canadian budget goes for healthcare, that means that the couple paid around $52,875 in total taxes and that means that the couple had an income of around $180,000.

It's really too bad that some people simply can't do basic research and/or arithmetic.

PS - The author of the article doesn't appear to actually exist.

PPS - I do want to point out one "minor" error in the article and that is that "private healthcare" is NOT "illegal" in Canada. After that "minor" error, the logic goes downhill.

Sally Pipes

Sally Pipes's stories. Sally Pipes is a scholar and think tank CEO who writes on health care.

www.forbes.com

Private insurance for medically necessary hospital and physician services is illegal in 6 of the 10 provinces

Costs are dramatically up, service is down and Dr's are leaving. Canadian healthcare is failing and probably killing people in the process.

Total wait timesThe Fraser Institute’s thirty-first annual waiting list survey finds that wait times [1] for surgical and other therapeutic treatments increased in 2022 (chart 1; table 2). The total waiting time between referral from a general practitioner and delivery of medically necessary elective treatment by a specialist, averaged across all 12 specialties and 10 provincessurveyed, has risen from 25.6 weeks in 2021 to 27.4 in 2022. This year’s wait time is 195%longer than in 1993, when it was just 9.3 weeks.

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/waiting-your-turn-2022.pdf

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

Sally Pipes

Sally Pipes's stories. Sally Pipes is a scholar and think tank CEO who writes on health care.

www.forbes.com

No links to Ms. Pipes or her "institute" work.

The article is four years old.

Private insurance for medically necessary hospital and physician services is illegal in 6 of the 10 provinces

Cite the statutes. BTW, you do realize that, since the cost of "medically necessary hospital and physician services" is $0.00, charging people premiums to pay that cost is, essentially, fraud?

Costs are dramatically up, service is down and Dr's are leaving. Canadian healthcare is failing and probably killing people in the process.

Total wait timesThe Fraser Institute’s thirty-first annual waiting list survey finds that wait times [1] for surgical and other therapeutic treatments increased in 2022 (chart 1; table 2). The total waiting time between referral from a general practitioner and delivery of medically necessary elective treatment by a specialist, averaged across all 12 specialties and 10 provincessurveyed, has risen from 25.6 weeks in 2021 to 27.4 in 2022. This year’s wait time is 195%longer than in 1993, when it was just 9.3 weeks.

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/waiting-your-turn-2022.pdf

If 100 people in "Country X" have to wait 27.4 weeks to get "Procedure A" and all of them get it, what is the average wait time for those people?

• 27.4 weeks

If 90 "Country Y" have to wait 20.0 weeks to get "Procedure A" and another 10 can't get it at all, what is the average wait time for those 100 people?

• ∞ weeks

Is the average wait time longer in "Country X" or in "Country Y"

Show your work.

 

[L88]

Number of Canadians who died while waiting for medical procedures reaches five-year high

thehub.ca

A new study by a Regina-based think-tank has revealed a concerning trend in Canada’s health-care system—one that could have implications for the ways in which health care is provided to Canadians.

The study, conducted by SecondStreet.org, indicates that in 2022–23, a five-year high of 17,032 patients died while waiting for medical procedures, some of which could have saved lives.

These findings are derived from information requests made to over 33 health departments, health regions, and hospitals throughout Canada. SecondStreet.org received responses, at least partially, from 12 of these entities, collectively covering almost 75 percent of the Canadian health-care system.

It’s worth noting that the majority of Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as Manitoba, were not included in these statistics. Consequently, SecondStreet.org’s estimate of deaths tends to be conservative, suggesting that as many as 31,397 patients may have passed away across the country since 2018.

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

Number of Canadians who died while waiting for medical procedures reaches five-year high

thehub.ca

A new study by a Regina-based think-tank has revealed a concerning trend in Canada’s health-care system—one that could have implications for the ways in which health care is provided to Canadians.

The study, conducted by SecondStreet.org, indicates that in 2022–23, a five-year high of 17,032 patients died while waiting for medical procedures, some of which could have saved lives.

These findings are derived from information requests made to over 33 health departments, health regions, and hospitals throughout Canada. SecondStreet.org received responses, at least partially, from 12 of these entities, collectively covering almost 75 percent of the Canadian health-care system.

It’s worth noting that the majority of Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as Manitoba, were not included in these statistics. Consequently, SecondStreet.org’s estimate of deaths tends to be conservative, suggesting that as many as 31,397 patients may have passed away across the country since 2018.

Totally shocking 6,280 a year (around 0.0157% of Canada's population is just plain unacceptable - especially since Death By Queue never happens at all in the US. The really funny thing about that is the decided paucity of references to it in the American medical statistics. It's almost as if it was something that Americans simply don't want to know anything about.

 

[L88]

Canada's failed system is not the way to go.
Private health care was illegal in all provinces 4 years ago until challenged in BC.
For some reason more and more people want access to private insurance in Canada, why would that be?
This is why I doubt you are a Canadian at all.

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

Canada's failed system is not the way to go.

Opinion - does not call for a response.

Private health care was illegal in all provinces 4 years ago until challenged in BC.

Still no link to anything that even looks like it might be confused with proof.

For some reason more and more people want access to private insurance in Canada, why would that be?

The Canadian population is growing and the providers of medical services are NOT compelled to accept payment through the government program.

This is why I doubt you are a Canadian at all.

You are as justified in coming to a conclusion based on no evidence as anyone else is - and your conclusion is just as valid as the conclusion of anyone else who doesn't know what they are talking about.

You might not have noticed it, but I don't claim to be EITHER American or Canadian, only that I live in Canada. I am, however, legally entitled to hold passports from four countries.