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What an absolute crock. At no point have hospitals closed due to lack of funding. They remain open 24/7 just as they always are. In some small rural areas the ER is not 24/7 but they have the ability to get someone to a nearby ER. That is nothing new and has been the case for decades... no different than small towns in the U.S.
Actually, my state and NB are almost identical. Yet it's shocking how poorly the rural areas and small towns are served over across, compared to here. (Another small town ER in NB shutting down next week.
Ah well; none of those bureaucrats who live in Fredericton live in those other towns, do they??
Canada and the US rank 30 and 37 for healthcare respectfully. If that ranking has any validity then obviously both nations have second rate care. For two premier first world nations to rank that poorly does not reflect positively on either nation. The problems Canadian healthcare has are obviously different from those of the US but still those who ranked the nations saw major problems with both systems. I am sorry you took offense, but that is how they have been ranked. Also for Canadians and Americans to refer to each other as "foreigners" is a bit laughable. While the two nations are separate sovereign entities they are hardly foreign to each other. I have lived near the Canadian border before, spent a good deal of time there. Also I will say I like Canada, but the last thing I thought of it as is "foreign". Sometimes Canadians work very hard to see the differences between the US and Canada, and when they find one they turn what is really a ditch into the Grand Canyon. True foreign people to North American often have trouble telling us apart and see little difference between the people of both nations. Very few if any nations on earth are as similar as the US and Canada. Another indisputable fact.
I feel that the World Health Organization is pretty reliable source and would provide validity on a ranking. They aren't biased, if they were Switzerland would be #1 but yet you see countries from all over getting into the top rankings. Mostly Europe to be fair but there's also Oman (what??) and other surprises. Like Cuba is just after the United States.
Europe ranks well because they decrease the disparities in healthcare access. All citizens can get healthcare. We don't have that here which is why the United States ranks so poorly in healthcare on top of high costs. Canada is very large but most of Canada is very close to the US border which means such close population distribution means less hospitals overall since they don't have to supply say, Nunavut, all that much. The United States isn't like that with a very well-dispersed population, so logistically would cause problems. That is why we can't adopt the highly federalized and centralized healthcare systems that do so amazingly well like Japan, France, and Italy because no state is created equal in what it needs treated and so on and besides these countries are the size of some of our states. However with this diversity in healthcare access, in what services are covered by province-level, will create disparities. This is why I think Canada doesn't rank AS well but ranks slightly better than us.
French healthcare is very strict and is operated uniquely. As someone else stated earlier, no country with UHC operates the same. It should be noted that France (#1) and Italy (#2) have both a mixture of public-private organizations in healthcare. So neither the top two are fully public.
I strongly encourage anyone reading this thread to read this study:
Thanks for those links, that commonwealth fund one is quite interesting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prickly Pear
The fact that Canada was like, "No, we will transport you all the way from Arizona because even if we do that it's still cheaper than treating you in the United States," says a lot haha.
I've said this in other UHC threads and I'll say it again. Canada's use of leaving the UHC to provinces rather than the federal level, with a mixture of the other top healthcare systems (like Italy) would work well in the United States. France, and Italy, is operated so the entire country works the same way without regional differences in the UHC. This matters because it actually makes their ranking higher, i.e. no disparities in healthcare. Now with regional, provincial/state-level differences, will create healthcare disparities, it will be the only way the system will work here. I do believe this could be one of the reasons why Canada is only #30 while the US is #37. Access won't be the same in different states which creates inequalities.
Australia leaves health to its states as well. Funding is from Federal level, but actual administration/management is a state function.
If Canadian heath care is so terrible and dangerous just make sure you never need to use it. Surprisingly many Canadians survive strokes, heart attacks and terrible vehicle accidents. At least in the USA everyone gets the heath care they need and can afford. Reading in the personal finance forum several Americans claimed that their premiums were an amount that was greater than the amount if income tax I ever paid in a year.
As far as Danny Williams goes if I remember correctly the surgeon in Boston was someone he knew well but the provincial health care claimed he could have had the same operation, timely and in Newfoundland. Perhaps adding up all those Americans who travel to Europe or Asia for medical treatment must mean that the US system is no good. Or maybe it means that Canadians and Americans in particular situations made a choice that was different from most.
If we trained more doctors and nurses our waiting times would be less, no doubt about that. But I do agree that unlike the American system it is nit perfect and some people fall through the cracks, are misdiagnosed or their illness progresses faster than expected. Americans are fortunate that none of that has ever happened there.
Australia leaves health to its states as well. Funding is from Federal level, but actual administration/management is a state function.
I was unaware of Australia's. To be fair out of my studies in healthcare policy a lot of it has been focused on a few countries of interest. France, Italy, UK, and Canada. I claim to not be an expert in either of the four as I am not a citizen in either, I just study from afar.
American healthcare has a lot of problems, I don't think a single American regardless about how they feel about UHC would disagree with that statement. We have a ton of issues. Like I stated earlier my neck surgery, that was an hour and a half, was over $40k and even though it's been over half a year now I am still fighting claims with my insurance because an emergency nurse came into my surgery to help out but because she wasn't in the network, the insurance denied that. It's a mess out here and I've heard worse horror stories with insurance companies here than what me and my family have had to deal with.
Yes I would consider you a foreigner. I live in a suburb of Toronto and I could count on my one hand the number of Americans I have ever met in my life. I have met people from all over the world yet Americans make up a very small number of our daily encounters. So yes, you are foreigners to us.
For ten years I lived so close to the border I could step on my front porch and look over at Canada. I knew Canadians, they spent lots of time on our side of border, I spent a lot on their side. Never did I feel people on either side of the border saw each other as "foreign". Obviously everyone is aware of them being separate nations but beyond that it was just a border, and one that means a lot less then most borders in the world. Now I see your from Toronto and there are a lot of people from that city who really have chips on their shoulder toward the US. (according to CD) Maybe its just an unfriendly city I don't know. (we have unfriendly cities too of course) Anyhow your chip is huge, I wonder how you carry it around. I wonder what makes someone dislike us to the extent you seem to dislike us. Ever been down here? Come down here and visit and see what we are really about. What I do know from my real life experience with Canadians is that people like you do not speak for most Canadians, I have known enough REAL Canadians from the real world that are not like you. I also meet them here in the southern USA when they come down here for vacation. They are always nice, always social and seem to not have that "chip" we often see here in city data land from the residents of Toronto. If I am wrong about Toronto I am sorry, but I cant help but notice that most angry Canadian posters hail from that place. Oh and I was not insulting your healthcare by the way, just pointing out that both the US and Canada did not do well in that ranking. If you don't like that ranking then work to change and improve the system. My point was that the two first world nations of North America should do better than that, no insult intended. Also I want to make clear that I like Canada, its a great country with great people.
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