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Discuss the Canadian Health System

Posted by  in Friday, July 31st 2009   
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The Canadian health system is often held up as a model for universal care. However, no system is issue free.

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5 Responses to “Discuss the Canadian Health System”

  1. hippership says:
    January 31, 2010 at 3:44 pm

    As an ex-Canadian RN, I think the Canadians are happy with their health care because they have nothing to compare it to. In my opinion my Canadian pregnant daughter recieved sub-care OB care in Canada. She was very at risk with her first pregnancy with a succinate placenta. She only received care from her family doctor until her 7 month and then was sent to an OB who let her go two weeks past her due date. She went into labor on a Friday night and the baby was delivered Sunday morning at 6:55 AM by instrumentation because the baby was obviously turned the wrong way. She suffered damage to the nerves that control her bladder function in the process and now almost five years later, she cannot jog or jump without losing urine. If she had been an American patient they would have induced labor sooner and performed a C-Section so she would not have to go through life with the disability they inflicted upon here. Since she knew no better she did not either suggest this, nor did she sue the pants off the hospital or doctor.

  2. jeffus says:
    August 2, 2009 at 1:49 pm

    PS. To The Bath Shoppe: Doctors in the States specialize because there is more money in certain fields. Less and less doctors want to be generalists or PCP (Primary Care Physicians).

  3. jeffus says:
    August 2, 2009 at 1:46 pm

    My understanding of Shona’s situation is that she had a cyst, not a tumor as CNN reported, or cancer as reported by Fox. Thus the delay in her treatment. I do not know how reliable a source the “Daily Kos” is, but this article seems well done:

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/19/7534/89631

    Republicans have stated that they want healthcare to be Obama’s “Waterloo.” I do not imagine that they want him to pass anything, regardless of who is backing Obama (ie. insurance and pharma companies).

    A friend of mine is supporting his wife and 4 kids on his not-so-high paying job. He recently had to shell out US$1,000 on dental work for one of his kids. He still thinks we have the best system, even though he can’t afford our system.

    He also thinks that “anyone can go to the ER” for medical treatment. That is the most expensive type of healthcare and is breaking hospitals, with several closing their ER because of the costs of treating people w/o insurance.

    regards

  4. jdole says:
    July 31, 2009 at 5:47 pm

    This type of debate is what I call intellectual acid rain- it comes across the border every 10 years or so when American’s try to reform their system. Interest groups provoke fear of crazy wait times in Canada based on anecdote. So many inaccuracies it is hard to know where to start.
    Here is one – It is not a government run system- it is a partly government financed system run by a mix of public and private operators.
    There are problems. The question for Americans is what set of problems do you want to have?

  5. The Bath Shoppe says:
    July 31, 2009 at 5:17 pm

    As you stated, no system is perfect. There are long waits at times at hospitals but that is not only the fault of the “system” but of the people waiting to see a doctor for a cold or a flu instead of using a walk-in or family doctor. Seriously, if you can wait for 11 hours to see a doctor for a sneeze you can wait 24 hours to go to a doctor’s office.

    Not that many people that become doctor’s go on to specialize so few specialists–Hence the need to actually give incentive to people to go on with schooling by removing the stupid salary caps.

    And lastly, there should be two tiers, if someone can pay and doesn’t want to wait there should be somewhere for them to go. It happens anyways they go South to the U.S and doctors here loose again.

    Not perfect-just “good enough” for my tax dollar

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