Health

The Canadian Experience With Government Health Care

Oct. 22, 2012 10:09am

Brian Lilley is host of Byline on Canada's Sun News Network.

Consequences to parents deciding not to vaccinate?

(Photo: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta) 

 

During the first presidential debate President Barack Obama made a claim against Mitt Romney that has been ringing in my ears ever since. Speaking on the topic of health care, Obama said that Romney would leave people “At the mercy of private insurance.”

The implication of course is that Obama will protect people from the big, mean insurance companies, and his own plan, Obamacare, is the more compassionate way. Supporters of government health care, and that is what Obamacare will morph into, love to make the insurance industry out to be the boogeyman.

Let me set you straight.

As a citizen of Canada living only with our socialized medical system I can tell you there are plenty of people refused care. Care that is recommended by their doctors. In Canada the health care system is run by the provinces and each provinces decides what treatments they will cover, what they will pay for each treatment, and whether they will allow new and cutting edge treatments.

I live in Ontario, the country’s biggest province and one run for the last nine years by the leftist Liberal Party. One of the first acts of the Liberal government when elected back in 2003 was to de-list a number of services and to impose a health care “premium” on every citizen. Really it was a health tax and a big one at that with middle income families paying an extra $450 per year each on top of their already high income tax rates.

Despite our socialized medical system there are plenty of services and treatments the government will not provide, and those that are on offer often come with a long waiting list.

Would American’s accept waiting lists months long to get an MRI or CT Scan? Most Canadians have no choice other than to wait or to pay out of pocket for a scan at one of the few private facilities that exist.

My family doctor tells me that were I to look for an MRI right now it would be a 6 to 12 month wait, and a 1 to 6 month wait for a CT Scan. This is how government health plans contain costs, they make you wait.

The other option is that they deny you care completely. Right now Ontario’s Liberal government  run by full on progressives, is telling doctors that they must get approvals from government bureaucrats before going ahead with ordering test.

Recently my family doctor had an elderly patient denied an EKG because the bureaucrats, none of them doctors, felt the test was not medically necessary. 

Welcome to the compassionate world of government health care.

My Sun Media colleague Christina Blizzard has done yeoman’s work exposing how heartless government medicare can be, and yet there is little outrage.

Take the story of young Erika Crawford, who when in need of a life saving operation under the government health plan, the only legal one to have, she was denied. The 17 year-old and her family found a way to get the surgery in an American hospital at a cost of $60,000 and with lots of community help. Can you imagine the outrage if a private insurance company told a child they wouldn’t pay for her operation and would let her die? With government care people just shrug their shoulders.

Then there is the story of 3 year-old Liam Reid. He needed an operation to save his eye sight but the only doctors to do it were in Detroit. The Ontario health plan turned down a request to cover the cost. Liam’s parents spent $45,000 of their own cash on treatment before running out of money. He can be treated but the “compassionate” government health care system says no.

President Obama would like people to believe that government care will be more compassionate, but it won’t be. Instead, health care for most Americans will become less efficient, rare diseases will be denied treatment and bureaucrats will decide if you get care.

That’s the Canadian experience.

Comments (12)

  • jaemd
    Oct. 23, 2012 at 10:09am

    We’ve been living in Montreal for three years now. Last year, my husband went to the doctor on March 28th with severe lower back pain. He saw specialists, went for tests, and on May 11th he had his surgery. His hospital care at the Royal Victoria Hospital was top notch and we have nothing but good things to say about how he was cared for all along the line.

    Is the system perfect? No. However, it is much better than it is in the U.S. Of that I have no doubt. Let’s not forget that there are stories in the newspaper every week about this or that HMO refusing treatment – often life-saving treatment. Insurance companies have to approve every test, procedure and medication your doctor wants to give you in the U.S. That is NOT the case in Canada. We specifically asked my husband’s surgeon if he had had any difficulty getting the approval. He looked at us as if we had two heads. He never has to get permission from the government, nor does any Canadian physician. That is a myth created out of malice or ignorance by the right wing to serve its own purposes.

    The writer has cited cases in this article wherein a child’s parents were asking for funding to have a specific surgery done in the U.S. but they were refused by the panel of doctors – not bureaucrats – who review such requests because the surgery could be done in Canada. There are plenty of examples where a provincial government has agreed to such requests and paid all the attendant expenses.

    Report this comment

    jaemd  
  • Republicanuck
    Oct. 23, 2012 at 2:22am

    And in answer to the $0.00 statement? How “free” is our health care?
    According to the Frasier Institute –
    “In 2012, the estimated average payment for public health care insurance ranges from $3,418 to $11,401 for six common Canadian family types, depending on the type of family. For the average Canadian family, between 2002 and 2012, the cost of public health care insurance increased more than twice as fast as the cost of shelter, roughly four times as fast as food, more than five times as fast as clothing, and 1.6 times faster than average income.

    Source:
    http://www.fraserinstitute.org/research-news/display.aspx?id=18858

    Report this comment

    Republicanuck  
  • Republicanuck
    Oct. 23, 2012 at 2:03am

    What Badblair isn’t telling our American Audience, is that Sask. is presently a “have” province. Complicated to explain to non-CDN readers, but relates to fiscal strength of province. The larger problems with Socialized health care are not seen during the good years. Money may exist for budgets then. It’s during lean years that problems surface. Not all of Canada is in Sask’s position. One REASON for that is health care system costs, including Ontario, the “udder” end of the cow he described. Not all provinces are equal. Ditto states. My experience in Florida was (mostly) positive, Alberta (20 years ago, when I lived there) was pretty good. My health care experience in Ottawa is almost uniformly bad.
    An article with my thoughts contrasting Canada/Us health experience, elsewhere:
    http://clashdaily.com/2012/10/from-one-who-knows-universal-health-scare/
    I generally agree with Lilley, and explain why.

    Report this comment

    Republicanuck  
  • Blue60
    Oct. 22, 2012 at 11:33pm

    I grew up in BC, Canada. I know no-one that had to wait for surgery or couldn’t get blue cross or private insurance. We also had to pay for our healthcare premiums in BC and perhaps that is why it’s so much better there. I live in the States now and have to be honest and say the healthcare here has been terrible compared to where I grew up.

    Report this comment

    Blue60  
  • badblair
    Oct. 22, 2012 at 2:43pm

    In 2003 my younger sister had a growth oin her voice box and only place operations like this were don was at Mayo clinic in minnesota so our saskatchewan health care system sent her and her husband down there for the operation, 2 week hospital stay and 3 go back check up visits, all paid for by our health care system.
    My moms oldest sister Aunt Laura was 90 and she had a hiop replacement sadly she passed away this past August at 95 she would have been 96 in October,so in our province we dont have death panels like we hear so much about.

    Report this comment

    badblair  
  • emmaliza123
    Oct. 22, 2012 at 12:57pm

    Before Washington took control of health care in 1965, people could afford medical care without insurance. Local charity and public hospitals covered the needy. When Medicare and Medicaid were created, stats showed that they comprised 90% of health care problems, primarily the elderly. As big government dollars entered the picture, the costs for everyone skyrocketed. Yet the costs for elective surgery not covered by insurance has declined. Costs now are out of control, as over time employers offered insurance to employees as a benefit. Most people have little idea of what anything costs, because someone else pays for it.

    In the end, any socialized medical scheme winds up like the defunct USSR, with only government elites getting the best care and everyone else rationed out of it.

    Report this comment

    emmaliza123  
    • HappyHarriet
      Oct. 22, 2012 at 4:56pm

      Thank you, Emma Liza! EXACTLY RIGHT. When we were growing up, we had all the healthcare we needed, and then some, and it was all affordable for everyone. It was, so to speak, Universal Health Care because it was delivered at the LOCAL LEVEL by a doctor you knew and if a family were needy, they still got care and someone in the community made sure that the doctor was compensated, in full or in part. Same with the local community hospital care.

      A little history lesson: after WWII, the GOVERNMENT decided to CONTROL WAGES and freeze wages. Companies seeking to hire the best and brightest after WWII and in the early 50′s had to come up with enticements considered “nonwages”. THIS is how employer-provided healthcare started. It was the DIRECT RESULT of GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE. See what happens to your life, decades later, when the GOVERNMENT gets involved?

      NO GOVERNMENT ANYTHING, people – you do NOT need to rely on a Government for anything except National Defense and a working court system.

      Report this comment

      HappyHarriet  
  • thetruthlives
    Oct. 22, 2012 at 12:03pm

    socialized anything = failure

    Report this comment

    thetruthlives  
    • badblair
      Oct. 22, 2012 at 2:51pm

      Really? says who? many things in America are socialised already yopur police depts fire depts schools credit unions owned by their members. Go to Scandinavian countries which usualy have socialist or socialist co-alitions, they are the most prosperous countries in world and are very happy with their lot and their cities are in top 10 as most prosperous, see below,

      http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/why-most-prosperous-cities-world-205102584.html

      we are lucky we have 2 North American cities in there NYC and Toronto makes us wonder who is smartest after all.

      Report this comment

      badblair  
  • lembrandt
    Oct. 22, 2012 at 10:43am

    This is a true story that happened to me: A couple of years ago, I met a couple when we were all going to a baseball game. The woman was a Canadian living in L.A.. She had no idea who I was or what my political leanings were. I found out her parents were still living in Canada and were going to move to Costa Rica. I said why would they do that because Canada is a lovely country?

    She said it was because of health care, which is why she moved to the USA to have her baby (she’s a naturalized citizen).

    This is a *direct quote*, remember it:

    “The health care in Canada is great if you need an aspirin, but if you need a kidney, you’re dead”

    Report this comment

    lembrandt  
    • badblair
      Oct. 22, 2012 at 2:38pm

      I dispute what I see and hear yes our health care leaves a lot to be desired but we dont have what 30,000 die from lack of health care or 12,000 families annually filing for bankrptcy,,and I see most of the problems are in the great Province of Ontario, which always seems to think its canada the rest is just backwoods. We have seen pictures of a cow caross Canada was eating in western Canada and milked in Ontario.
      I see folks state what govt has been in power, well why ya bitching ya voted them in like in USA elect Obama or Romney you wont win with either of them.
      I live in the prtovince of Saskatrchewan since march 2008 previously I lived for 25 years in Edmonton Alberta.
      Jan 15th I was admitted to the Royal Alex hospital in Edmonton with necretising Facititis, or that flesh eating decease on my left leg they operated 3 times i was in hospital 2 weeks and when I walked out my bill was $00.00 than you!
      After that my family in Saskatchewan wanted me to move back home and I did im a senior and as such have a few health problems ive had a MRI and a KATSCAN and ultra sound my MRI and Katscan waited 10 days or could use private clinic for MRI and for $1800.00 I could have my MRI nope I waited and was free paid for by taxes.., so I have no problems with my health care, thank you!

      Report this comment

      badblair  
    • Kevin
      Oct. 23, 2012 at 11:43am

      @BadBlair – I don’t live in Canada, but as the article states it’s entirely dependent on the province in which you live. You seem to be lucky enough to live in a province that doesn’t have a long wait time, and I’m happy for you. This article dovetails with information that I’ve read, stating that it’s possible to avoid long wait times provided that you can afford to travel to the provinces where there is not a high demand.

      However, over all this study shows that the mean wait time across for elective specialties across Canada is roughly 10 weeks from general practitioner to specialist and 10 weeks from seeing the specialist to treatment. Are you really going to wait almost half a year to have a knee or hip replaced?
      http://www.fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraser-ca/Content/research-news/research/publications/waiting-your-turn-2011.pdf

      Report this comment

      Kevin  

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