Quote:
Originally Posted by ToucanSpam
That's what I was thinking. Two of the reasons why I would argue the Canadian health care system doesn't work so well is the wait time and what you're alluding to, sometimes called "brain drain". If all of the countries in North America had the same system there might be less incentive to cross the border looking to open a private practice...but there might still be a shortage of doctors within the system because there's less incentive to become a doctor in the first place if all it will lead to is a standardized job in a nationally owned an operated hospital. But I have no proof to back up my point because it's all hypothetical.
The waits in Canada can be brutal sometimes:
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/170/5/776-a
Not good enough. |
We're not mimicking or stylizing The US health care reform with Canada as a template.
No Boogeyman Here, Obama Says Canada’s Health Care System Not Scary
“I've said that the Canadian model works for Canada,” Obama said, “It would not work for the United States, in part simply because we've evolved differently. We have a employer-based system and a private-based health care system that stands side-by-side with Medicare and Medicaid and our Veterans Administration health care system. And so, we've got to develop a uniquely American approach to this problem.”
Canada’s single-payer, publicly funded model of health care has been used as a political football domestically by critics of Mr. Obama’s. Groups like Patient United Now have put up ads to give dire warnings about the negatives of Canada’s health care system, having first person testimonials of long waits and refusals for treatment, connecting those problems to the administration’s proposals.
I heard today on the radio that a larger percentage of Canadians do actually see the same doctor throughout their lives than US citizens. I cannot find anything to back that up, so maybe it's just because Canada's total population is 34,578 people.