Ah, Canada’s universal health coverage.
The system that allows you to visit a doctor after you’ve been viciously attacked by
a Canada goose completely free of charge.
Those Canadian doctors bandaged me up, reset my jaw, put my shoulder back in its socket,
and they didn't even bill me!
Such an amazing system, certainly better than what those silly Americans have going on…
STOP!
Stop lavishing praise on Canada’s system – this is completely the wrong way for our
country to discuss the issue of healthcare!
Whenever Canada’s healthcare system is discussed, it’s very often in the context of a comparison
to US healthcare.
Every Presidential election sees some Americans praising Canada’s system while others disparage
it.
We don't want the socialized healthcare they have in Canada, we want American solutions.
The Canadian healthcare system is preferable to the American healthcare system.
Their system is so slow it's catastrophic in certain ways.
Here in Canada they provide quality healthcare to all people.
In general, Canadians support universal, taxpayer funded healthcare, so these debates often
leave us feeling pretty proud, and dare I say even a little smug, about our system.
But this is the wrong way for us to be discussing and thinking about our healthcare, because
constant comparisons between the very different Canadian and American systems, in my opinion,
prevent Canadians from properly examining our own system’s shortcomings.
When you compare Canada’s healthcare to other wealthy nations that also have universal
systems, our system starts to look a lot more mediocre.
In this video I’ll take a look at a few ways our system falls short, and what some
of the some of the suggested ways to improve it are.
And if you enjoy this video then don’t forget to subscribe for more content like this!
Alright, if we shouldn’t compare Canadian and US healthcare, then what comparison should
we make?
Well, a 2017 report from The Commonwealth Fund that looked at the healthcare in 11 wealthy
countries found that the UK had the best healthcare system overall, with Canada ranking in at
number 9 – only the US and France performed worse.
In addition, both The Commonwealth Fund report and a study from The Fraser Institute found
Canada was spending more on its healthcare despite poorer performance!
So, what’s the reason for this poor performance?
Well, the Fraser Institute found that Canada has a low number of doctors and resources
per capita.
Canada ranked poorly for number of acute-care beds, MRI, and CT machines per capita.
And those lack of resources are likely contributing to longer wait times – only 43% of Canadians
were able to gets same day doctor appointments when sick, and over 60% had to wait over 4
weeks to see a specialist!
Another problem with the Canadian system is access to prescription drugs and dental care
– 30% of Canadians reported difficulty paying for prescription drugs and 28% skipped routine
dental care because of high costs.
In the UK, those figures were only 12% and 11%.
If Canada is performing so poorly on healthcare compared to the UK, then what can we do to
fix these problems?
Well, I’m not a doctor or a politician, so I don’t have all the answers, but there
are a few potential solutions out there.
One idea that has been discussed a fair bit recently is implementing universal pharmacare
in Canada.
Canada is the only country in the world with universal healthcare but not universal pharmacare.
A universal pharmacare system could help lower spending because the federal government could
purchase drugs in bulk, giving them much greater bargaining power to lower costs.
Another idea is to allow some private healthcare alongside the public system.
This is how the UK system works – wealthy individuals can pay to receive faster care,
which in turn reduces strain on the public system and increases doctor’s pay, encouraging
more individuals to pursue medicine as a career.
This idea is definitely controversial though, as many Canadians dislike the idea of a two-tier
system and believe everyone should receive the same treatment regardless of wealth.
While I may not be able to say what the best solution to Canada’s problem is, I can tell
you what we shouldn’t be doing: cutting nurses pay while hospitals are experiencing
severe staff shortages and the country is recovering from a global pandemic.
Unfortunately, it seems Jason Kenney didn’t get the memo.