Canadians, is your health care system as bad as US conservatives say?

I am Canadian, and the stuff that you guys hear is 99% false. The truth is, the wait lists for surgeries exist for those needing non-critical surgeries, because those needing emergency surgery will always receive it immediately. The ones waiting are those like my friend. She injured her knee when she was 11, and it has bugged her a bit since then, but only when she does vigorous activity. She is 24, and recently went to get it checked on. She is on a wait list for her surgery. However, if she needed it immediately because of her occupation (like, if she was a pro football player) she would have gotten it instead of being on a wait list.

As for the waiting room in hospitals, last time I was in the emergency room with my daughter, I waited for 5 minutes. This was on a Saturday morning in the middle of flu season. The longest wait I have ever had at a hospital or clinic has been 30 minutes. And the care that we receive is excellent. For example, when I had my daughter, I delivered with 2 doctors, a nurse, and 2 respiration therapists because there had been some complications. We stayed in the hospital for 3 days, until we got breast feeding down, I pooped, and my blood pressure returned to normal. Then, a nurse visited our house free of charge 4 times in the first 2 weeks to check on us and make sure we didn't have any questions.

When it comes to taxes, we do pay a bit more than Americans. I think that the total dollar amount works out to be a little less than what Americans pay for your insurance plans. However, I think it is a common misconception that this is income tax. I have gotten at least a $1000 refund from income tax every year since I started working, because we get a ton of tax write-offs here. For example, we get $5000 per child if we are married, and up to double our base personal amount if we aren't. We get to write off daycare, tuition and education amounts, moving expenses, etc, etc. I'll just put it this way for you. I live in an area where the average home value is $450,000. The average annual income for the area is $75,000. In the city where I live, this is considered a middle class area. If we were really destitiute, would we be able to afford this?

The truth is, our taxes pay for social programs which actually make us better off in the end. For example, I am on a 1 year paid maternity leave right now. If I was considered low income, I would receive $600 per month from the government per child. Since I'm not, I get the minimum $100 per child per month. When my dad passed away, his government pension plan paid my mom $1000 per month for the rest of her life. Everyone in Canada gets CPP when we retire, with the payments usually being around $1000 per month per person. This is on top of any RRSP's, etc that we have. Our university tuition is also government subsidized. And, our government has operated at a surplus for over 10 years. If you don't believe me, take a look at our government website. I work in HR, and used to work for the HRSDC (the place that issues all of these social programs). I have also worked in payroll and benefits administration, so I have a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about.

Basically, to answer your question, it is political hogwash.

Whenever the gov't gets involved, the whole system will fall apart. The Canadian system will not work here in the states because most people will not stand for a 2 year wait for a elective surgery. Salaries {including Md's} will go down, so you will have a mass exodus of well trained professionals. Competition will suffer, new research will diminish. The rich who can afford private health care will do so, and then there will be whining about the rich get better health care...and so on ....and so on... It has been proven that social health care is not the answer here in the states. We need to find out where the waste is and go from there. Stop frivolous law suits, so malpractice insurance can come down, raise nurses salaries {just kidding}, just a few thoughts.

I lived up north for many years and some of the things that are said about the health care system are true but they are exaggerated to make things seem worse than they are. In any of the big city's you can expect to wait for quite a while because of the number of cases every day. But that's the same as it is here. Some non emergency operations have a longer wait but if you need something done right now it's going to get done right now. But when you stack that up against the idea that up there it might take a bit longer but you know it's going to get done vs down here it will get done if you have the money, i'll take their system. As for taxes, yes theirs are higher but when you add on all the things that they don't pay for I think it evens out. I don't think anyone on the right who says "ask a Canadian" has ever really asked a Canadian. Now they will complain, because complaining is the second Canadian national pass time (right behind hockey) but if you ask them if they would trade with us most of them would say no.

This is a hard question because the system is not perfect by any means

Is it as bad as what I hear the US conservatives or rather the corporate representatives of medicine for profit say ......... no where near it

It in no way bares any resemblance to the reality of the Canadian health care system

But to give the system glowing recommendations of achievement is not accurate either

No the system is not perfect --- Yes all attention should be placed on where the problems are and how to fix them with no sparing of the details or some political hacks reputation

But --- the fear mongers of propaganda in the US disgust me . Their lies are purposeful and with the intent of deception they seek to mire the basic concepts into those of communism and totalitarian regimes when the opposite is true

Problem

Keeping doctors in the north is very very hard because the amount of patients in small towns severely limits there ability to make money

Solution ---- government inducements for doctors -- which has ended up a band aid solution to universal health care access in the remote portions of the Province

Problem

Fraud --- which is 2 fold -- Doctors putting in false claims and poor management of health cards which have fallen into the hands of illegal immigrants and criminals

Solution --- The government has chosen to do little --- handed it all over to the police who can not manage the problem without serious inter agency cooperation which does not exist and then washed their hands of it deciding to make the whole problem taboo

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Problem waiting times -- which has been a government promise and platform in hospital rooms and for specialist services

The government touts it's success --- but much work needs to be done - The shortage of specialists means that a wider approach needs to be taken

The current priority listing services leaves many wealthy people low on the list to be seen and they will often buy themselves out of the problem by going to the US --- This gets media and corporate attention in the US

Solution

Better understanding of the triage system must be introduced to the public for the sake of transparency and real evaluation of government claims of improvement --- Right now there is no model for success or failure leaving the government to pronounce anything a success

Wait times for emergency services are among the best in the world --- however allowing either the public or the government to rest upon this claim will lead to lax approaches to new and innovative approaches

Solution --- Study health services in other nations and adopt a standing committee to formulate their best solutions into our system . Allow the success to be published but only as a measure of the standing committees success in order to keep the governments feet to the fire

I hope that helps --- If you have a specific question I will try to answer it

As a Canadian I am fairly pleased with our health care. In those cases where a Canadian is sent to the USA for treatment, it is usually from border cities, like Windsor & Detroit. If you lived in a city like Chatham Ont, they would probably send you to London or Toronto. Those are cases where special treatment is needed like heart of stroke, and not everyone is shipped to a larger hospital it depends how seriously sick that person is and if the hospital in Canadian has the beds available. Most Canadians stay in their own country. If you do have to go to the states our OHIP (medical plan) covers the cost. Most things you stay right in your own city. If the emergency room is busy you may have to wait for several hours, but I think that happens in the states too. At least if ER, the TV drama, gave the right image. But, one thing is certain, we don't lose our homes if someone has a serious health problem. We don't go thousands of dollars in debt trying to pay off an operation. I would not want to have the American health system here, it is very scary to me. If a couple has a baby its paid for. We are not communist and I think the American public get too nervous over this issue.

Amen to Subvertor above. I have yet to find a Canadian who would trade their system for ours. The posts you see above about waiting times are at best a few isolated cases, and I can match each of those with worse horror stories of the US system in terms of waits, denying coverage retrocatively etc.

Keep in mind the vast majority of conservative posters on here are are paid posters, or mental cases coming over here from kkk or nazi sites like nsm88 or stormfront. The spread vile filth and lies to support their disgusting agenda.

This is a great question.. and to the Canadian Answerer above me.. I wish I could put you on a tour around this country.. it is incredible the BS that is spouted in denial of the population.. and in total support of The Insurance Company's.. Notice that Lock 2 right above me talks about his Canadian Family having to come here.. he is Lying. I can't say that for sure, but I hear that same argument from the right over and over.. and either every wanna be Con in this country has really sickly Canadian relatives or they are demonstrating their extreme Herd Mentality by Lying (against their own betterment) in unison...

I live In Syracuse NY right under the Canadian Border, and I have tons of friends and Business associates that are Dual Citizens (we are about to be as well as my wife's Mother is from BC) AND I can tell you without equivocation That every single Canadian I know, Goes home for Check ups, Dental Appointments etc.. even if they live here year round they go back home for exactly the reasons laid out by the woman above me.. they don't have to wait, the care is excellent and it's covered in their taxes.. further many of them are quite successful and industrious... so much for Socialism draining the will to work ?

Fantastic question and answer here... may all you Right winged Boobs read this and absorb what is being said..

Great question. I would love to see input on Canadian citizens on this.

of course not, as a canadain conservative, i find it great. the care is 1st class, there is a wait, but not days, and its free, well, technically you have to pay taxes but still.

i find it quite superior to the american ssystem

The Canadian plan has its problems. However, we don't have to adopt the Canadian system here in the US to provide health care to our citizens.