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It's not free, its paid through taxes, but the upside is that you don't have to worry about access to healthcare, being out of network, co-pays, deductibles, reaching $ limits, or worry about not having the money to pay for expensive treatments.
No, you just have to worry about dying while on a waiting list waiting for treatment, while celebrities and the politically-connected jump over you, because, uh, well, they're celebrities and politically-connected.
"The promise of the Canadian health care system is not being realized. A profusion of research shows that cardiovascular surgery queues are routinely jumped by the famous and politically connected and low-income Canadians have less access to health care," Esmail said.
"This grim portrait is the legacy of a medical system offering low expectations cloaked in lofty rhetoric. It's one defended by special interest groups with a stake in maintaining the status quo. The only way to solve the system's most curable disease - lengthy wait times that are consistently and significantly longer than physicians feel is clinically reasonable - is for substantial reform of the Canadian health care system."
On a national basis, median wait times have hovered between 16 and 19 weeks since 2000, following a marked deterioration in wait times during the 1990s when surgical waits grew steadily from 9.3 weeks in 1993 to 14 weeks in 1999. This year’s median wait of 17.7 weeks is 91 per cent longer than in 1993.
“The existing system is broken. Even monumental increases in government health spending have failed to reduce wait times over the past decade. Equally troubling is the fact that Canadians face some of the longest waits for medical treatment in the developed world.”
The median surgical wait time in 2011 jumped to 19.0 weeks from 18.2 weeks in 2010, exceeding the previous all-time high of 18.3 weeks recorded in 2007, according to the 21st annual edition of Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, released today by the Fraser Institute, Canada’s leading public policy think-tank.
“Canadians are being forced to wait almost four-and-a-half months, on average, to receive surgical care, prolonging the pain and suffering patients and their families are forced to endure,” said Mark Rovere, Fraser Institute associate director of health policy research and co-author of the report.
“Despite significant increases in government health spending, Canadians are still waiting too long to access medically necessary treatment.
The existing system is broken. Even monumental increases in government health spending have failed to reduce wait times over the past decade. Equally troubling is the fact that Canadians face some of the longest waits for medical treatment in the developed world.”
Oh noez! The wait time is longer for things like plastic surgery and orthopedic surgery! You're backing up what I have been saying all along. If it's not life-threatening, yes, you can wait a bit longer, as it won't kill you. If it's urgent, you get it right away.
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The American Cancer Society is devoting its entire $15 million advertising budget for 2007 to highlight the problems faced by Americans who don't have any or enough health insurance.
The society says that, because they lack insurance, people may not be getting the checkups they need to catch cancer early, when treatments are more successful.
"Reducing suffering and death from cancer may only truly be possible if all Americans are able to visit their doctor for regular checkups, early detection screening tests and prompt, quality cancer treatment if and when they need it," said Richard C. Wender, national volunteer president of the society.
The ad campaign is "going to tell the American people that a large and growing number of people are dying needlessly from cancer, because they don't have access to our health care system," said John Seffrin, the society's chief executive officer.
Dr. Otis Brawley, incoming chief medical officer of the cancer society, said 1 in 10 cancer patients lack insurance.
Almost 560,000 Americans will die from cancer this year, and the American Cancer Society estimates 36,377 cancer patients will die without insurance.
An estimated 47 million Americans are without health insurance, according to the most recent Census Bureau statistics. A 2003 report published in Health Affairs says an additional 16 million Americans were underinsured, lacking adequate insurance to protect them against catastrophic health care expenses. Cancer Society ads: Lack of insurance costing lives - CNN.com
A couple of things. First off, equating wait times with quality and affordable health care is misleading. Canadians may have to wait a little longer on average than Americans, but their health care is more affordable and everyone has access to it. In my opinion, that is a good trade off.
As long as you're not the one who dies.
Diane Gorsuch died waiting for "the affordable health care that everyone has access to...."
Diane had an heart condition that would cause her to die.
Diane had open-heart surgery scheduled......then cancelled because there were no hospital beds available, nor was there any money to perform the surgery that fiscal year.
Diane had open-heart surgery scheduled....a second time...months later...in the next fiscal year...and that surgery, too, was cancelled for nearly the same reasons.
Diane had open-heart surgery scheduled....for a third time....months later...
...she died while waiting nearly 3 years for surgery she would have gotten in a matter of days in the US.
Manitoba kills cardiac care unit, consolidates services at single site
However, attitudes changed when people on the waiting list started dying — there have been 11 deaths since 1999 — and both the Liberals and Conservatives demanded Chomiak's resignation. The last straw appears to have been the death of Diane Gorsuch, 58, who died in February after spending more than 2 years awaiting surgery. Thirteen days after she died, the review was announced.
Look at the all the Canadians here waiting for "the affordable health care that everyone has access to...."
Delay, Denial and Dilution: The Impact of NHS Rationing on Heart Disease and Cancer
IEA Health and Welfare Unit (London)
12% of kidney specialists in the UK said they had refused to treat patients due to limited resources (same source).
One study showed that patients accepted for dialysis stacked up this way.....
65 patients per million population UK
98 patients per million population in Canada
212 patients per million population in the US
Look at the all the Canadians here who died or suffered myocardial infarction or congestive heart failure waiting for "the affordable health care that everyone has access to...."
However, only 37% of the procedures overall were completed within the requested waiting time.
Interpretation: Patients awaiting cardiac catheterization may experience major adverse events, such as death, myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure, which may be preventable. Our findings provide a benchmark by which to measure the effect of increased capacity and prioritization schemes that allow earlier access for patients at higher risk, such as those with aortic stenosis and reduced left ventricular function.
Quote:
Originally Posted by A Common Anomaly
Like most people who use the "waiting meme", you cherry pick the data. While Canadians may wait longer than Americans, this is not true for all industrialized countries.
Uh-huh...so you're saying Britain is not an industrialized country?
Delay, Denial and Dilution: The Impact of NHS Rationing on Heart Disease and Cancer
IEA Health and Welfare Unit (London)
12% of kidney specialists in the UK said they had refused to treat patients due to limited resources (same source).
One study showed that patients accepted for dialysis stacked up this way.....
65 patients per million population UK
98 patients per million population in Canada
212 patients per million population in the US
Oooops.....
Lung cancer treatment waiting times and tumour growth.
Therefore, 21% of potentially curable patients became incurable on the waiting list.
This study demonstrates that, even for the select minority of patients who have specialist referral and are deemed suitable for potentially curative treatment, the outcome is prejudiced by waiting times that allow tumour progression.
Mortality on the waiting list for coronary artery bypass grafting: incidence and risk factors
Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden
BACKGROUND: Insufficient capacity for coronary artery bypass grafting results in waiting times before operation, prioritization of patients and, ultimately, death on the waiting list. We aimed to calculate waiting list mortality and to identify risk factors for death on the waiting list.
Oh, sorry, I forgot....you think Sweden is a 3rd World State.
You might want to do some research before you accuse people of "cherry-picking" data.
Quote:
Originally Posted by A Common Anomaly
While Canadian's spending on HC is more than the OECD average, it is significantly cheaper than the US. Again, I not sure what your fetish is with the Canadian system, but every industrialized country spends significantly less than the US on health care.
Spending less and costing less are not the same thing.
I'll go ahead debunk your silly claim that health care is cheaper in other States......
Expenditure of selected health care functions by providers of health care, per inhabitant [hlth_sha1h]
Last update 25.10.11 Extracted on 06.01.13 Source of Data Eurostat UNIT Euro per inhabitant ICHA_HC Health care expenditure ICHA_HP All providers of health care
Romania.......310.39
South Korea....... 837.74
Slovakia....... 1,060.60
Denmark....... 4,643.97
Switzerland....... 5,215.64
Norway....... 5,343.49
Luxembourg....... 5,438.46 United States....... 5,684.68
UNIT Euro per inhabitant ICHA_HF General government
Romania....... 241.10
South Korea....... 473.18
Slovakia....... 690.87 United States....... 2,657.86
Switzerland .......3,114.60
Denmark .......3,775.17
Luxembourg .......4,105.86
Norway .......4,195.13
UNIT Euro per inhabitant ICHA_HF Private household out-of-pocket expenditure
Romania .......63.95
Slovakia .......268.80
South Korea .......271.69
Denmark....... 611.68
Luxembourg .......680.76 United States....... 697.13
Norway .......805.54
Switzerland....... 1,590.18
No, I didn’t stutter…..those are out-of-pocket expenses.
Still, I hope the US doesn't opt for a decent healthcare system, if it does then future generations elsewhere won't have a bad example to point to whenever politicians start wanting to tinker with their own system.
This is an aspect of the issue which gets far too little attention in the U.S. In much of the developed world, the U.S. serves as an absolutely essential support to their own healthcare systems - without it, how could the opposition barrack the health minister when he tries to trim his departmental budget or close a hospital? The civilized world needs the Americans to set a bad example.
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