First Impressions of Health Care in Canada Part II

CaduceusThis is Part II of III

I should step in for a minute and differentiate between health insurance and health care.  The Obama administration and the Democratic Party have not proposed that the government take over health care.  At the least, they have argued that the government should pay for or provide insurance for those who cannot otherwise afford health insurance or cannot obtain it through employer.  At the most, some Democrats have argued that we need what is referred to as a single-payer system, a system in which all costs stemming from medical care are paid for by one specific government source.  An example of a single-payer system would be Medicare, although Medicare is only for a specific group of individuals.  “Single-payer” only refers to the way in which the medical bills are paid.  In the case of the United States, one Democratic proposal is that the government provides the insurance and that private organizations provide the care.  And this actually brings us to Canada.

The way health care works in Canada isn’t very much different than the way in which some Democrats are proposing the United States take action.  Like automobile insurance, health insurance is mandated, and in the province of Ontario health insurance is provided by OHIP, the Ontario Health Insurance Plan.  A patient simply goes to the doctor and is treated or has treatment scheduled (depending on the illness or health problem), and the doctor bills the Ontario Government.  This cuts the patient out of the loop and streamlines administrative costs.  The government controls the cost of pharmaceuticals, and this in turn prevents companies from charging exorbitant prices for drugs.  Pharmaceutical companies are also prohibited from advertising drugs directly to patients via billboards, magazine ads, or commercials on television (sort of, I don’t know very much about this yet), so there are no (or very little) advertising costs for the companies to fund.

Whatever you believe about how health care should be reformed in the United States, it’s clear that we’re doing something wrong just by looking at Canada’s numbers.  Follow this link and read the chart.  Canada’s life expectancy rate is higher, the infant mortality rate is lower, their per capita expenditure on health is half of what it is in the U.S., Canada spends 6% less of their GDP than the U.S. and about 2% less of their total government revenue, and they cover 25% more of the cost of health care per individual than the U.S.  And, if I’m not mistaken on the numbers here, Americans import something like $1 billion worth of their prescriptions from Canada because it’s cheaper than buying from companies in the United States.  I’m not saying we need to do things as they do things, just that we need to do something.

The greatest complaint that I’ve heard about Health Canada is the wait time required for some treatment.  While life-saving surgeries and treatments are always a priority and patients are always given immediate service (even if it means flying them elsewhere or to the Unites States), other treatments are scheduled according to urgency.  Doctors recommend a wait time based on a patient’s age, overall health, quality of life, etc.  Sometimes people slip through the cracks, and sometimes people die before they can be treated.  But even when Canadians complain about the wait time, one thing they always follow it up with is the fact that every single person in Canada has health insurance.

To be continued...here