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My doctor didn't think it was so great. She and her husband moved from Canada to the US to get out of the Canadian health care system. She says the system doesn't allow doctors to make a living that compensates for the effort they put in to become doctors. I'm not sure when she moved to the US. She's been my doctor for over 20 years now.
For me the fear of a doctor shortage would have to be addressed. If people don't think it's worth it to go through the education to become a doctor we could have a serious problem.
Canada is seeing a shortage of family practice doctors as doctors choose more lucrative specialties. They are also seeing a shortage in areas of low population density in a system where the only way to make more money is to turn over more patients. Health care becomes like schools where the more students you can pack into a room the more money you get from the government. That hasn't worked well for schools where it doesn't matter what a good education costs. You have what you have and that is it unless you can find a way to pack more students into the space you find available.
One thing I like about my doctor is she takes her time with her patients. It's annoying to have to wait for your appointment but I try to remember that she gets behind because she takes her time with each and every one of us. If the only way to make more money is to see more patients that goes away.
That was true decades ago in my province of Quebec. Doctors' salaries were low compared to today, and the consequence was a brain drain towards the USA. Note that Quebec's pay in the field were so low that one publication I read didn't even include it when calculating the average pay of doctors across the country. Things have caught up since even 10 years ago.
I'm not super sure of the figures, but an older general practitioner grandfathered in the older plan (paid directly a salary and pension by the provincial gov) would get maybe 120K a year + pension. A young doctor in the new plan working 40 hours a week can get $300-350K (have to deduct ~15% clinic overhead from that).
Something else to consider when comparing salaries US vs Canada is that American doctors have to carry far costlier malpractice insurance. The latter reflects the higher likelihood of getting sued in the US.
The way I remember it, Europe has a slight majority on pharmacological research, while the U.S. is the largest single country.
Novartis, Bayer, La Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZenecam, etc. are all hq'ed in Europe. There's a huge pharmaceutical industry in India, Israel and Japan too.
Plus many countries have a lot of research carried out through Medical Charities and Funds, Medical Research Councils, Universities and Hospitals.
Originally Posted by Institute of Cancer Research - London
We have made game-changing discoveries that revolutionised the way cancer is studied and treated.
We were the first to provide evidence that DNA damage causes cancer, and the first in Europe to develop chemotherapeutic agents, some of which are still in use more than 50 years later.
We discover more new cancer drugs than any other academic centre in the world.
Since 2005 we have discovered 20 cancer drug candidates, progressed nine drugs into clinical trials, and had abiraterone, a pioneering prostate cancer drug, approved by NICE for use in the NHS.
The ICR is also the leading academic research centre in the UK.
We ranked first in the Times Higher Education league table for performance in the last Research Excellence Framework. And we are the leading academic institution in the UK, in terms of the impact of our papers in biological sciences and clinical medicine on our peers.
Together with The Royal Marsden, we rank in the top four centres in the world for cancer research and treatment.The ICR is focused on taking our research results to patients as quickly as possible.
We work with pharmaceutical companies to develop new treatments for patients, and are the most successful university in the UK at generating invention income from our discoveries – income which we plough back into our research
The ICR’s invention income per $1,000 of research spend would place it in the top 10 of US universities for which figures are publicly available – ranking above some of the world’s leading universities including Stanford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
We have also contributed to medical innovations such as the Computerised Tomography (CT) Scan which was first developed in London by Godfrey Hounsfield (the Hounsfield Scale), who later won a Nobel Prize for his efforts .
Whilst fellow Briton Professor Peter Mansfield (University of Nottingham) was also awarded a Nobel Prize for his contribution to the development of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Machine.
Furthermore the discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule by Crick and Watson has the University of Cambridge has helped bring about Cancer Genome research and treatments.
Other European countries also have good pharma, biotechs and research centres and Europe still remains an important centre for science, research and development.
Last edited by Brave New World; 03-26-2017 at 09:44 AM..
Besides our obsession with guns, our insanely expensive healthcare is probably the biggest American dysfunction that baffles people around the world.
Many people around the world consider American healthcare ideology a serious moral and ethical failure.
Who freakin' cares what they think, though? What bearing should it have on our decision-making? Our nation is so super-sized compared to these countries that we are most often compared to. There is no one-size-fits-all solution that we can rip off from other countries. We have 350 million people in 50 states here. Comparisons are futile.
What makes the US different, that would make such system a disaster?
The only issue I see is that the health insurance companies, with enormous financial sources and paid lobbyists would not allow it. They put money in the pockets of our politicians and the politicians sing the songs they are paid to sing!
Not necessarily "the exact same." Patents are country-specific and are limited to the borders of the issuing country. A US patent does nothing to prevent infringement in any other country. Packaging and all can be replicated with no penalty incurred.
... which is why it is the norm for companies to obtain patent and trademark protection in multiple countries.
Yeah our intellectual property system is a big issue that people don't talk about. Economists and policymakers have not been sufficiently critical about the risks of "strong patent laws." Our consumers paying 10, 100, 1000 times more than other countries is just not an acceptable outcome.
This issue is a major one, in my opinion, that's intertwined with these trade deals like TPP, TTIP, NAFTA. A lot of average voters haven't really thought about patents and intellectual property.
Exactly! You get it! Americans pay the costs, and the rest of the world benefits.
Without those patent laws, however, no one would invest in the the very costly research and development of new pharmaceuticals and expensive medical technology. Therein lies the conundrum.
Who freakin' cares what they think, though? What bearing should it have on our decision-making?
Well it's like being the kid in class who insists upon wearing his underwear outside his pants. Sometimes maybe you should listen to your friends.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nor Cal Wahine
Our nation is so super-sized compared to these countries that we are most often compared to. There is no one-size-fits-all solution that we can rip off from other countries. We have 350 million people in 50 states here. Comparisons are futile.
America is big, but it isn't so big that it defies comparison with everyone else.
I'm curious why so many non-Americans have such strong opinions and almost some sort of vested interest in our healthcare system here, it seems. It seems as though some even take it to a personal level when they overhear someone say "I don't support universal healthcare". Why is that? It has little to zero effect on foreigners, yet this thread and any others like it are always swamped with foreign opinions on what's best for us.
I don't support universal healthcare. I generally ignore all the comparisons to other countries because our population absolutely dwarves that of Australia, Canada, and the UK and I think that that is an extremely important but oft-ignored factor.
As someone who spent years in the Medicare field professionally, and who has several family members in the VA system, I've just seen enough first-hand f*ckery to feel very low confidence that we can capably administer healthcare to 350 million people.
It could be because of stupid people in this country who persist in talking about how universal health care does not and cannot work, all the while ignoring the fact that, in many places, it does.
... which is why it is the norm for companies to obtain patent and trademark protection in multiple countries.
Sometimes even that doesn't matter. When a foreign country presents a drug, the formula of which is exactly the same as the patented med, at a lower cost to UHC countries, the obvious happens. The UHC countries go with the lower cost alternative. They're violating no patent/trademark agreements because the exact copy facsimiles are not produced in their countries.
Manufacturing a knockoff of a patented product is illegal. Purchasing the same is not.
Why can't we take the best from all of the plans and make one up that works for most if not all citizens.
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