Canada's broken no competition health care system is close to collapse

[DKG]

Preston Manning warned in the 1990's that public health care would become unsustainable unless the Canada Health Act was reformed. The former PC party, the Liberals, and the NDP dismissed his warnings as trying to bring US style health care delivery to Canada. Now his warnings are reality and we still bury our heads in the sand and pretend Canadian health care is not on life support.

Tsunami of critical reports show Canadian health care is on life support

If every government in Canada — federal and provincial — is treating health care as a priority, then why is the system irretrievably broken, year after year?

Most of all, why does nothing ever get better, despite decades of studies documenting the same problems over and over again?

This week alone, four studies documented major problems with Canada's health-care system, all of which were made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, but all of which have been issues for decades.

A Fraser Institute study released Thursday reports that median wait times for medical treatment across 12 specialties in 10 provinces this year are the highest they've ever been in the three decades during which comparable records have been kept — 27.7 weeks from a referral by a general practitioner to treatment by a specialist.

That's up from 27.4 weeks last year and 198% longer than in 1993 when it was 9.3 weeks.

A report by SecondStreet.org released Wednesday found that, based on partial data from the provinces, at least 17,032 patients died in Canada while waiting for surgery or diagnostic tests between April 1, 2022 and March 31, 2023 and that the total number could be as high as 31,397, a 64% increase over the past five years.

A report by the Ontario Auditor General on four aspects of the province's health care system also released Wednesday found:

* 200 unplanned emergency department closures in provincial hospitals between June 2022 and June 2023 because of a shortage of doctors and nurses in 23 hospitals, mainly in rural, remote and northern Ontario locations.

* wait times for treatment in emergency rooms are increasing, along with hallway medicine.
* staff in long-term care homes lack critical training, plus there aren't enough of them to ensure patient safety and quality care.
* Public Health Ontario is struggling with inefficiency in its labs and poor coordination of public health research in areas such as latent tuberculosis and wastewater testing for COVID-19.

A study released by the Ontario Health Coalition Tuesday reported 1,199 temporary or permanent closures of hospital services this year up to Nov. 24, resulting in the loss of 31,055 hours of patient care, the equivalent of 3.44 years.

A report by the Ontario College of Family Physicians last month said that last year, 2.3 million Ontarians didn't have a family doctor, which will increase to 4.4 million by 2026, a major reason hospital emergency rooms are overwhelmed by patients who could be treated by a family doctor if they had one.

A report released by the Fraser Institute last month comparing Canada's health-care system to those of 29 other developed countries with universal health-care systems, who are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, (excluding the U.S. which doesn't have universal health care) found that in 2021:

Canada ranked 28th out of 30 countries for the number of doctors (2.8 per 1,000 people); 23rd out of 29 for the number of beds dedicated to physical care (2.3 per 1,000); 25th out of 29 for MRIs (10.3 per million people) and 26th out of 30 for CT scanners (14.9 per million).

Among 10 comparable universal health care systems that measure medical wait times, Canada's were the longest, with the lowest percentage of patients waiting four weeks or less to see a specialist (38%) and the lowest percentage waiting four months or less for elective surgery (62%).

While more money (which federal and provincial government claim they don't have) may be needed in some areas of health care, money alone isn't going to fix the problems.

Adjusted for age — the percentage of the population over 65 — Canada ranks highest for expenditures on health care as a percentage of GDP among 30 OECD nations, and ninth-highest per capita.

The public cost of Canadian health care last year was $331 billion or $8,563 per Canadian, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, with health care consuming about 40% of provincial budgets and accounting for 12.2% of Canada's GDP.

Given all this, it's painfully obvious that Canada's health care system, based on the myth of "free" health care, is broken and that we need to start seriously studying what other developed countries with universal health care are doing right that we're doing wrong.

Or nothing will ever change.
https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/goldstein-tsunami-of-critical-reports-show-canadian-health-care-is-on-life-support

[Shen Li]

I have to laugh, the official opposition here in Alberta is claiming the sky is falling on the province's health care. It's the whole fucking country and it was no better when the dippers were in office.

Singapore's health care puts Canada's to shame. Singaporeans live longer too.

[Biggie Smiles]

Socialism always fails in the end

[Shen Li]

Socialism always fails in the end

They will double on stupid here until the rising cost of public health care bankrupts every province.

[Seamajor1]

I have to laugh, the official opposition here in Alberta is claiming the sky is falling on the province's health care. It's the whole fucking country and it was no better when the dippers were in office.

Singapore's health care puts Canada's to shame. Singaporeans live longer too.

It's no wonder. Too many participants. Health care here is pretty good. Vaccines, most drugs are free. Drs visits free. Part of one's residency

[Seamajor1]

Anyone here knows about Calpine and how it relates to Canada? They have a tidy operation going in Sonoma and Lake counties in Ca.

[Oerdin]

My understanding is there is no actual Canadian healthcare system but instead each province has its own.

[Oerdin]

Anyone here knows about Calpine and how it relates to Canada? They have a tidy operation going in Sonoma and Lake counties in Ca.

Google says Calpine is a Texas based energy generator with power plants mostly based upon natural gas fired and a few geothermal powered.  I am not sure what they have to do with healthcare in Canada.

[Frood]

Seabs isn't all there, if you know what I mean...

[Seamajor1]

Google Calpine and Canada pension plan investment board.

[Frood]

Google chemical castration and old folks homes.

[Seamajor1]

https://www.cppinvestments.com/newsroom/cppib-calpine-18-08-2017/

[Lokmar]

Cucknadians have been coming to the USA for decades to pay out of pocket for diagnostics and operations because Cucknadia's health care is fucked. Now America's health care is fucked just as bad because of President Nigger and Juan McStain. At least McStain is dead and rotting in hell where he belongs!

[JOE]

Cucknadians have been coming to the USA for decades to pay out of pocket for diagnostics and operations because Cucknadia's health care is fucked. Now America's health care is fucked just as bad because of President Nigger and Juan McStain. At least McStain is dead and rotting in hell where he belongs!

health care system is pretty good where I live...Lokmar!

Plus it's free!

However, I agree that there are wide disparities in the level of healthcare from region to region. Like the States, the poor ones lack or don't get a family doctor. Lower quality care, etc etc.

I think Dove posted a YT video about Nova Scotia, one of the poorer regions/provinces in Canada where the people there dont have very good quality healthcare. But if a person is in a more prosperous region, they get better healthcare.

One thing that weighs the system down are too many fucking freeloaders. ie - bums who come off the street and use it as their own personl daycare centre. I def think that free loaders or repeat/heavy users of the system who use it unecessarily should pay for extra visits. I think in the US, they do this right? and your system is largely fee payer and private. I believe even Obamacare places limits on the amount of times a patient can access they healthcare system. one major step/improvement is the system needs to be rationed in order to save it. the bums who abuse it need to be told that the state is not their babysitter.

You know what I would do for the street bums who come in every night flooding our hospitals, is bar them from entering, and instead put them in makeshift trailers where they could  get visited by a paramedic. But not a doctor. It's hard to believe that we put our best physicians caring for a bunch of undeserving bums like that. Physicians in emergency rooms should only be deployed for those truly in need.

Our hosptials ought not be drunk tanks or overnight detox centers

Fuck those people.

Socialized medicine can only work if people stay healthy and don't overburden the system. The system doesn't work if too many people freeload or abuse it.

I think people who abuse the system, should be relegated to 2nd or 3rd tier. That way the people who really need it get the help first.

[formosan]

My understanding is there is no actual Canadian healthcare system but instead each province has its own.

We have the Canada Health Act which sets guidelines for how health care is delivered in Canada..

Ottawa gives back some of the taxes it takes from provinces to pay for it, but the provinces pay for most of it out of their own budgets..

My province is the fastest growing through both internal migration and immigration..

In recent years our provincial government has drastically increased our health care budget, but there never seems to be enough emergency beds and wait times for necessary procedures are still too long..

Taiwan spends less than we do and has better results.......I don't know what Canada is doing wrong.