Quote:
Originally Posted by dmek25
•According to Statistics Canada, the official government statistical agency, "In 2005, the median waiting time was about 4 weeks for specialist visits, 4 weeks for non-emergency surgery, and 3 weeks for diagnostic tests. Nationally, median waiting times remained stable between 2003 and 2005 - but there were some differences at the provincial level for selected specialized services.… 70 to 80 percent of Canadians find their waiting times acceptable" "Access to health care services in Canada, Waiting times for specialized services (January to December 2005)," Statistics Canada, http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepu...75-XIE/82-575-
seems like about what we have here in the U.S. right now |
Go no further than wiki to blow the above argument up.
Health care in Canada - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wait times
One of the major complaints about the Canadian health care system is waiting times, whether for a specialist, major elective surgery, such as hip replacement, imaging procedures such as
MRI or
Cystoscopy, or specialized treatments, such as radiation for breast cancer. Studies by the
Commonwealth Fund found that 57% of Canadians reported waiting 4 weeks or more to see a specialist; 24% of Canadians waited 4 hours or more in the emergency room.
[24]
A March 2, 2004, article in the
Canadian Medical Association Journal stated, "Saskatchewan is under fire for having the longest waiting time in the country for a diagnostic MRI—a whopping 22 months."
[25]
A February 28, 2006, article in
The New York Times quoted Dr. Brian Day as saying, "This is a country in which dogs can get a hip replacement in under a week and in which humans can wait two to three years."
[26] The Canadian Health Coalition has responded succinctly to these claims, pointing out that "access to veterinary care for animals is based on ability to pay. Dogs are put down if their owners can’t pay. Access to care should not be based on ability to pay."
[27] The CHC is one of many groups across Canada calling for increased provincial and federal funding for medicare and an end to provincial funding cuts as solutions to unacceptable wait times
[28]. In a 2007 episode of
ABC News's
20/20 titled "Sick in America," host
John Stossel cited numerous examples of Canadians who did not get the health care that they needed.
[29]
According to the
Fraser Institute, treatment time from initial referral by a GP through consultation with a specialist to final treatment, across all specialties and all procedures (emergency, non-urgent, and elective), averaged 17.7 weeks in 2005.
[30][31] However, the Fraser Institute's report is greatly at odds with the Canadian government's own 2007 report.
[32]
Since 2002, the Canadian government has invested $5.5 billion to address the wait times problem.
[33] In April 2007, Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper announced that all ten provinces and three territories would establish patient wait times guarantees by 2010. Canadians will be guaranteed timely access to health care in at least one of the following priority areas, prioritized by each province: cancer care, hip and knee replacement, cardiac care, diagnostic imaging, cataract surgeries or primary care.
[34]
Canadians visiting the U.S. to receive health care
Some residents of Canada travel to the United States because it provides the nearest facilty for their needs. Some do so on quality grounds or because of easier access.
- According to a September 14, 2007, article from CTV News, Canadian Liberal MP Belinda Stronach went to the United States for breast cancer surgery in June 2007. Stronach's spokesperson Greg MacEachern was quoted in the article saying that the US was the best place to have this type of surgery done. Stronach paid for the surgery out of her own pocket.[45] Prior to this incident, Stronach had stated in an interview that she was against two-tiered health care.[46]
- When Robert Bourassa, the premier of Quebec, needed cancer treatment, he went to the US to get it.[47]
- In 2007, it was reported that Canada sent scores of pregnant women to the US to give birth.[48] In 2007 a woman from Calgary who was pregnant with quadruplets was sent to Great Falls, Montana to give birth. An article on this incident states, "There was no room at any other Canadian neonatal intensive care unit."[49]
- Champion figure skater Audrey Williams needed a hip replacement. Even though she waited two years and suffered in pain, she still did not get the surgery, because the waiting list was so long. So she went to the US and spent her own money to get the surgery.[50]
- A January 19, 2008, article in The Globe And Mail states, "More than 150 critically ill Canadians – many with life-threatening cerebral hemorrhages – have been rushed to the United States since the spring of 2006 because they could not obtain intensive-care beds here. Before patients with bleeding in or outside the brain have been whisked through U.S. operating-room doors, some have languished for as long as eight hours in Canadian emergency wards while health-care workers scrambled to locate care." [51]
- While some Canadians have gone to the US to receive health care services, the numbers are few and insignificant when compared to the population as a whole. Also note that travel costs to the US as well as other expenses make this trip to the US affordable only to those that have the money to do so. Many health care lobbyists in the US are using the argument that Canadians come to the US for treatment because they want to block a public option in the US.
Pretty damning of that country's system when the Premier goes out-of-country to get treatment. And he came here to use our "terrible" system.