mykidslovedogs
Full time employment: Posting here.
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2006
- Messages
- 860
I guess if I was diagnosed with a brain tumor, I would pay to go to The Mayo Clinic for my MRI and treatment. There are certain things where money is no object. But I would not want anyone claiming it is because I could not get it in Canada.
What if America had a single payor system and a shortage of specialists and MRIs for Brain Tumor diagnosis? Where would you go then? Sure, you could get it EVENTUALLY in Canada, but would it be too late?
Watch this video On The Fence Films :: Movies (a Short Course in Brain Surgery) about someone who needed a brain scan in Canada. He was placed on a long wait list, but didn't want to wait because of suspected cancer. He went to Buffalo to get his MRI (which showed cancer), yet Canada still wanted him to wait another 3 months for surgery. If he would have waited, he would have had incurable cancer. He went to the USA for surgery and spent a large sum of money to do that (could the average Canadian afford to leave Candada for brain surgery?). Canada refused to pay for the surgery because he didn't wait for permission which would have taken just as long as the wait for the surgery.
Single payor systems work WONDERFULLY for routine, preventive and acute care, but NOT SO WELL for complicated health problems requiring expensive diagnostics and the services of highly specialized doctors. Canada's system seems great to most people because MOST people don't need to have highly specialized care and don't experience dealing with the system for that purpose....but when they do need it, the tune changes...
Last year there was a net influx of doctors from the US because, after paying for the escalating malpractice insurance, they were netting less for the first time in decades. There are still areas underserviced. When my son moved his family to Belleville east of Toronto, it took a year to get a new family doctor there. This was four years ago. They used walk-in clinics but everyone likes to have a family doctor.
Was this an influx of specialists or primary care physicians? I doubt it was specialists, which, when it comes to major health problems, is what you really NEED!
The US system spends 17% of GDP on health care yet sees 50% of personal bankruptcies directly attributable to medical bills, and 47 million have no access at all. Canada spends 9% of GDP on health care and everybody has access to it.
I hate when people throw around these stats. We spend more on healthcare because we CAN. In Canada, prices are fixed, so it's not hard to put a limit on inflation. Our figures include the cost of care for people who leave other countries and get care in the USA when they can't get it in a timely manner in their own country.
Just because someone doesn't have health insurance doesn't mean they have no access to care. They can always pay out of pocket if they want to, and for routine care, it's not really that much more expensive to do that than health insurance itself. People in America will spend $20,000 on a new car, but when it comes to their own healthcare, they don't want to spend a dime.
Major medical insurance above a certain deductible is fairly inexpensive if you buy it BEFORE you get sick. Health insurance is most important for people with major medical problems. The great majority of uninsured people are not in urgent need of major medical services. I talk to people everyday who can easily afford a major medical plan but choose not to purchase it. That's their CHOICE. In fact a LARGE chunk of the uninsured population include people who CHOOSE not to buy it, even when they can afford it. Only a small percent of the uninsured are unwillingly uninsured AND in great need of expensive services (probably about 2-5%).