@Ganymede said:
@Shebakoby said:
As a result, millions of canadians can no longer find a family doctor, and thus have precisely 0 access to specialists.
Are you one of those millions of Canadians? Because, as a Canadian, I was, and am, not.
Nor was my mother, who was diagnosed (again) with thyroid cancer. She was diagnosed within 2 weeks, and had surgery scheduled 3 weeks later. She could have gotten in earlier, but she was busy traveling.
The funny thing about these stories is that I've never actually met a Canadian that ever had a problem getting a required surgery done. I've also never actually met a Canadian that ever had to wait for a cancer scan longer than 2 weeks. And I've known plenty of them.
I have, however, met and read the records for dozens of Americans who have been the victims of medical malpractice. I've read medical malpractices cases for scores more. And this is only in the State of Ohio.
People like to attribute the Canadian horror stories to OMG Canada's health care system sucks. You should check out the actual number of Americans who have been the victims of their own health care system. I think you'll conclude, as I have, that whether the system is a single-payer public system or a oligopolistic private system is immaterial. You will likely conclude that doctors, nurses, health care professionals, and their patients make mistakes.
I think you will also conclude, as I have, that medical professionals that don't have to worry about coverage issues or costs will be able to spend more time training and researching than balancing monthly budgets.
Yeah but where in Canada are you? A large city in a well-populated province? It really all depends on where you live. Large provinces with enormous population centers such as Ontario, Quebec, and big cities in the well-populated Maritimes won't have as much trouble as say, someone in a western community with less access.
I know several people, some in my own community, who have had trouble, and LOTS of it, getting care for various things. Not everyone has trouble getting care, true, but I've seen it happen. I myself have been on the recieving end of long wait times. I had an MRI scheduled...TWO YEARS to wait. I am not even joking. Then I had a follow up, two years after that. It was snowing pretty good on the day of my second scan but I got dad to drive me in his 4 wheel drive and we MADE it. (this was not for cancer, it was for suspicion of Multiple Sclerosis, but still). A family member's wait to have orthoscopic knee surgery took so long that they simply refused to do it because of reaching a certain age. It should have been done.
I'm lucky, my doctor hasn't retired yet. But in another few years, I MIGHT wind up as one of those millions of Canadians.
I'm not saying American health care is perfect, or anything close. Far from it. I have relatives in the states, so I have heard a few horror stories on the other side of the border. But neither am I saying that Canada's sucks (or sucks worse). The US system has pros and cons, and same with the Canadian system. But we shouldn't pretend that there are no flaws, or that the flaws are insignificant, in the Canadian system. Several things need addressing, not the least of which is the problem of attracting new doctors, and doing something about allowing immigrants who would be perfectly qualified doctors to actually practice as doctors (after say a preliminary examination to ensure their knowledge is up to par). We need to acknowledge the problems so that we can pressure our various members of parliament to get it fixed.
Doctors retiring and not having locums to fill in for them or even anyone to take over their practice are now a serious problem near where I live. There aren't enough doctors to fill in the gaps. There was a huge story in the paper about it several weeks ago, in fact.
