Why Canadian health care is better
I've lived on both sides of the border. Our healthcare system isn't perfect, but from where I sit, it sure looks a whole lot better
By Rona Maynard
I had just endured another colonoscopy, the nasty but necessary screening test so effective in preventing colorectal cancers, when I heard about the colonoscopy sweepstakes. Announced in a 60 Minutes commercial break back in February, it featured an eyebrow-raising prize: a free exploration of your gut by a New York gastroenterologist, plus four nights at a luxury hotel (first night to be spent on the toilet after swilling glasses of the noxious laxative that are required for the procedure).
It was a uniquely American way to raise colon cancer awareness while striking a chord with people who never see a doctor because they can’t afford it. This past August in Los Angeles, more than 6,000 of them lined up for hours and camped out in their cars to attend a temporary free health clinic. In the world’s richest country, some
46 million people have no insurance to cover what every Canadian has taken for granted since the birth of medicare in 1967. The luckiest Americans have employer-sponsored plans—at least while they keep their jobs. The rest can buy insurance, if they have the money. (My friend Elaine, a self-employed Canadian now living in Arizona, had to shop around: Her pretty basic plan costs about US$8,000 for her family of four.) What’s more, even the insured are one health crisis away from financial ruin because their insurer either doesn’t cover all the costs or—unbelievably to us Canadians—cancels their coverage.
No wonder President Barack Obama has staked his legacy on a furiously debated plan to ensure portable, accessible insurance for all Americans. Its most controversial plank—a public option to compete with private plans—has been labelled “socialist” by fear-mongering opponents who heap scorn on Canada’s universal health care.
As an American by birth and a Canadian by choice, I can’t help but take this personally. I remember how astonished and grateful I was to receive no medical bills for prenatal care and childbirth back in 1971, when we were still struggling to pay for groceries. I am glad to be living in a country where cancer patients are not left to die untreated (it actually happened this year in Las Vegas, when a cash-strapped public hospital closed the chemotherapy unit). And like many Canadians, I cringed last July when an Ontario woman, Shona Holmes, became the Joan of Arc of the American campaign to stop the public option. In an inflammatory commercial for a conservative lobby group, Holmes said she was forced to have brain tumour surgery in the U.S.—and mortgage her house—to avoid a six-month wait at home. It turned out that Holmes had suffered from a rare cyst, not a tumour. But she’d been losing her vision, and had I been in her shoes, I too might have taken desperate measures.
I like to think that with the help of my superbly connected family doctor, I could have pushed successfully for timely treatment in Canada. But I pay $1,300 a year to be part of my doctor’s corporate practice and have access to his contacts (so much for the notion that two-tier medicine doesn’t exist here). Most Canadians aren’t so fortunate. In fact, a shortage of doctors has left five million people in this country with no first-line practitioner, let alone a well-connected one to champion their case. And then there are the wait times that still dog our system. The median wait time for common non-emergency surgeries ranges from four to six weeks.
Looking south, I can’t suppress a stab of envy. Insured Americans don’t wait in line, and at its best, the medical care is downright posh—as my expat friend Elaine discovered after surgery in a top-quality hospital with nurses hovering and tasty meals ordered from a menu. “It was like a hotel,” she recalls. Still, she knows her experience is hardly typical, and has made it her mission to answer questions from anxious Americans about Canada’s government-funded system.
For Canadians, health care is the emblem of what we’ve always considered our defining virtue as a people—fair-mindedness. Because our system is more compassionate in spirit than that of our swaggering neighbour, we tend to overlook countries that surpass us. “Canadians think our system is the best in the world, and this is not the case,” says Dr. Robert Ouellet, recent past president of the Canadian Medical Association, which has been working on a blueprint for “health care transformation.” The project took him on a fact-finding tour of England, France, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands, which have all done away with wait times. Asked what Canada should do to follow other countries’ lead, he has no shortage of ideas. For instance, hold hospitals accountable for the quality of care they provide (a British CEO was fired for unacceptably high infection rates). Let nurses and physician assistants assume some duties now needlessly assigned to doctors. And encourage competition with the public system by easing restrictions on private clinics.
As the owner of private radiology clinics in Quebec, Ouellet has his biases—and his critics. But there’s no disputing his ultimate goal: better health care for Canadians. “There’s waste in the system,” he says. “We need people taking care of patients, not pushing pencils.”
For me, a dual citizen, the Canadian fear of private care echoes the American horror of public funding. But in Canada we make our points in two-way conversations, not by shouting down the opposition. It seems to me that we have more respect for the art of listening. As Elaine puts it, “Canadians have a mentality of we. Americans have a mentality of me.” That’s why I’m proud to call Canada my home—and why I’m hopeful that one day our health care may indeed be the finest in the world.
This article was originally titled "Be glad you live in Canada," in the November/December 2009 issue of Best Health. Subscribe today to get the full Best Health experience—and never miss an issue!—and make sure to check out what's new in the latest issue of Best Health.
For more great things to love about Canada this Canada Day, visit our partner site, Sympatico.ca.
Best Health Magazine, November/December 2009
Having lived in both Canada and US I definitely prefer the US system. I can see a specialist in a week (as opposed to a 6-month and counting waiting period in Canada) and get an MRI done the same day (as opposed to a 5 month waiting period in Canada). The waiting times in Canada are absolutely absurd. But then technically this is a form of evolution regulating itself - the weak in Canada are the sick, whereas the weak in US are the poor.
A waiting list of 3 years for a colonoscopy, is not good health care!!!
Well, mostly all the comments been posted by Canadians who never tried a different
Health care I think... It so simple to be an expert...
You would be surprised if you dig deeper and find out were the rich Canadians prefer
to get medical treatment. Germany, Israel, US, and even India...
Our Health Care System is a big joke to be honest, and we definitely need to bring a
Government attention to this problem.
Why not compare our healthcare with someone other than the US, like Sweden, France, Germany, etc?
I believe that a universal healthcare program like we have is essential and that we must maintain this plan. I think though that at the rate we are going that we as Canadians will soon not be able to afford to maintain this plan. Babyboomers (like myself) are all set to retire over the next 10 to 15 years and this will put an incredible strain on our system. I believe there is abuse in the system now by both patients and physicians, and if this is not fixed now the system will have no option but to collapse. I don't know who has the answers but here is my suggestion. I believe that we should implement a user pay system, Please read on before you condemn. How many times have you been to the hospital or to your family doctor and have had to wait in line for hours behind someone with a sore throat or has bruised their toe. Maybe not the best examples, but you know what I mean. As well there are a lot of times when people are visiting ther doctor just because their physician ask them to come in even though they don't think there is anything wrong with them. If everyone simply had to pay a small fee like $10 or $20 everytime they visited the doctor the lineups would be a lot shorter. People would only go to the doctor when they actually needed to. Of course there would have to be exemptions. For example, people below a certain income level would qualify for a rebate after spending a certain amount . As well doctors would take people in when it was an obviuos emergency. I am sure that many are going to disagree, but I believe a system like this would help reduce both wait times and doctor shortage. Would you sooner be paying a couple bucks per visit now, or see a total system collapse in a few short years.
Canadian health care is the best in the world...if you have a serious problem you are taken care of immiadiatly....it's that simple....whether you have a personal doctor or not the hospital will have a well trained one waiting for you....and you are asked to put your hand in your pocked.. ok..so your problem isint too serious ..so wait a while ..big deal..at least your not going to lose your house...Come to think of it...Canada is the best country on this planet....
Canada's health care system has been tremendously beneficial to the people of Canada and this is why in opinion poll after opinion poll Canadians choose to support this system. Tommy Douglas being named the "Greatest Canadian" was no accident and those who seek to undermine the public faith in the system to usher in a private system should be well aware of the publics democratic voice on this matter. The ongoing challenge with hospital wait times can be traced directly to a "self inflicted wound", Mel Hurtig's words not mine. In the 1990's Canada's universities reduced enrolments in medical schools across the country despite Canada's growing population and ageing demographic. This disaster of public policy is rarely stated by our politicians as a reason for Canada's Health Care challenges. Today Canada is suffering through an acute shortage of trained medical practitioners to adequately provide treatment for our population. The number of practicing doctors in Canada is well below the average for the OECD countries and the number of doctors per 100,000 of the population continues to decline with the retirement of doctors from the baby boom generation. There are numerous studies and reports to attest to this problem including stats Can, the OECD, and Mel Hurtigs "The Truth About Canada."
Sorry, I call bs on your ludicrous figure of eleven thousand dollars for your emergency room visit and on your claims of a two-week waiting period for treatment. You obviously have an agenda, and are therefore making all kinds of ludicrous claims. If you're so pleased with Canadian health care, that's great for you. But in the end, the facts don't lie, and the facts show that people DIE in Canada while waiting for even the most basic treatments, MRIs, CT scans, etc etc etc.
Do you think it's mere coincidence that all the world's leaders and wealthiest people go straight to the U.S. when they need treatment for something remotely serious? You don't see them flocking to Canada, do you? No, of course not, because they know that by the time they got to see a doctor, they would most likely be dead.
Thanks, but no thanks. As a Canadian, I can't wait for the day when we finally have the option to pay for health care. Those (such as yourself and the lady writing the article) are so fond of Canada's health care, that's great -- you guys can stay on the socialized government plan and wait up to 3 months for critical scans or treatment. And while you're waiting, I'll gladly pay for the option to walk into a private clinic and have my results the next day.
I used to be just like you. I used to think that we had the best health care system in the world, until I actually had the misfortune of watching what happens to someone who actually NEEDS health care. After that experience, I feel like I was slapped back to reality, and now I no longer praise and defend Canada's nightmare the way I used to. I now long for the day when we are given the option to pay for the chance to get better/faster/much-needed health care.
What's really shameful, is making this comparison in the first place. Our system can improve just as well as theirs. We should all be taking note of the best features of each system and benefit from that knowledge. If we want to hold one above the other, well there are many other countries with better health care than Canada. Does that mean we should roll over and accept that, or step up and better ourselves. Don't blink, we'll soon be left in the dust, without changes to our current system. Hospitals are already hosting Dream Home Lotteries and telethons just to tread water. Our health care is not well funded, and can't maintain itself as is.
Canada's healthcare is just fantastic. My late wife got cancer, an incurable type. She saw an oncologist after two weeks and had a life saving operation after another two weeks. 14 months later, of which five were in the hospital and the last few at home with a nurse coming to the house twice a day she passed away at a hospice. Total costs for me? $ 15.00 for a parking ticket and a couple of $ 2.00 Drugstore charges. Did she get sub-standard care? Absolutely not. there was a specialist available whenever help was needed.
Compare that to my 25 hour stay at the Baylor hospital in Dallas, TX, for food poisoning. The first act of theirs was to take my wallet, call American Express and my other credit card providers to put a "hold" on several thousand dollars on each. The treatment for me was zero, zilch, none. The worst was over by the time I reached the emergency room. Total cost, including a 2 min doctor visit, $ 11,000 US, paid for by my travel insurance.
If you are a woman that suffers from any kind of chronic condition, it does not matter whether you live in Canada or the USA as the World Health Organization has recently announced that women receive inadequate care around the globe, including North America. As a young woman who has suffered intractable, debilitating pain from previous spinal surgeries and now severe osteoarthritis, getting help for my pain was almost impossible. And then to wait over a year to get into a pain clinic? How absurd! No wonder chronic pain sufferer's have a 65% likelihood of committing suicide. The problem is doctors who treat patients like widgets from an assembly line because they are overworked and underpaid, never mind how most of the good physicians are in the US. In my opinion, it is partly the system to blame and the other is doctors who really don't give a damn or don't have a clue.
The comments of " dw " reflect that down and dirty "I love america above Canada at all costs" . Let's be completly honest . The yanks have tried for 40 years to achieve the same quality of health care as Canada and still can't make it. Even the latest attempt will leave the u.s. far behind Canada and the rest of the civilzed world. A recent international study clearly indicated that the life expectancy of u.s. citizens is far below that of Canadians. Atmost 3 years...3 years .Does that indicate to you a better system " dw" ? Is our system perfect . ...of course not. It's a work in progress. The administrative costs...just their "administrative costs" in the u. s. are 2 to 5 times higher than in the rest of the civilized world. (profit).
"As Elaine puts it, “Canadians have a mentality of we. Americans have a mentality of me.”"
Americans have a unique mentality of individualism . . . personal responsibility, personal liberty . . . go read their constitution and bill of rights.
Canadians . . . have bought into the "Collectivism" mentality . . . so grama dies waiting for service for the good of the "Collective" . . . this is socialism, which has failed everywhere it has been tried,
What will make the Canadian system better is competition, that has started in the last few years and will continue to grow, resulting in better health care for all Canooks.
46 million do not have insurance . . . . nonsense . . . even the chosen One now talks about 30 million.
Of that 30 million about half are 20 and 30 somethings . . . who would rather buy a new car or spend their money on entertainment than medical insurance . . . cause they ain't sick. So that maybe leaves 15 million. The recently passed HC bill will not cover all.
Our HC system is on the verge of collapse in most parts of the country, sucking almost half of the budget in most provinces . . . the concept of "FREE" is nuts . . . in the next few years watch for User Fees in all aspects. That has been going on in several Euro countries where free became unsustainable.
Most Canadians will agree with the article . . . but . . . a couple of questions.
Where do most of the new medical devices and inventions come from?
Where do most of the new drugs come from?
Why the USA . . . not to say that some Canadian institutions are not making progress in many areas, but our system hinders progress.
Only a few years ago Bellingham WA had more MRI devices than the greater Vancouver area. We have more than 2 today, but we still wait.
Don't hear of too many US citizens coming to Canada for health care, but many Canadians go south for 1st class care.
Once you factor in the excessive taxes we pay in Canada to feed our system . . .the US system is a bargain . . . that is till Bama and nutty Nancy screw it up. If everyone believed Mickey Moore we would all be going to Kuba, but nobody does.
Well duh!!!! As if we didn't know our healthcare system was better than the US, the article seem really unnessasry information that we already knew! We shouldn't be comparing ourselves with a faulty and terrible system like the US, instead we need to be comparing our healthcare system against Britian or France's healthcare system. It would put ours to shame! We should be striving for better instead of comparing ourselves to failure.
I have good reasons to put my two cents in. I have not complaints about the Canadian Health System. In 1982 I came down with Gillain Barré Syndrome and spend 2 months in an intensive care unit recovering and did three months of hospital and rehab at no cost whatsoever. In 2006 I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. My prostate was removed. A year later after years of acid reflux which damaged my esophagus, it was removed (a 8.5 hour surgery) and was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. The wait for surgery in both cases was less than 3 months and normal and I never felt threatened by the wait. If, in both cases, it would have been urgent I am positive that the surgery would have been advanced. I was never charged a penny for my hospitalization and care for Gillain Barré and 2 cancers. I received extremely good care...before...during and after my hospitalization. I always get angry at the those that complain about our Canadian Health System. It may not be without some problems but it is still a great system. U.S. folks living close to our border do come to Canada for treatment and to see our doctors.
I'm a Canadian living living in the US for 5+ years and I also have seen both systems. Wait times are long in the US too. I was in the hospital for 5 1/2 hours for stitches on my thumb with 6 people ahead of me. They chose not to stitch it just wipe it clean, glue and a shot. That cost close to $1000.00 with insurance. The doctor spent a whole 3-5 minutes with me. Doctors here are like bankers, they are looking to get that $50million+ salary.
We have the greatest system in the world if our Health Care system KNOWS you dying or near death. However if you are waiting to be diagnosed for any undetermined problem you go on a waiting list. How do I know this... One of my relatives and myself have both been waiting for nearly a year to see specialists.
What our system needs is restructuring without a political agenda and the acceptance that public health care can not affordably cover everything.
I believe that the public health care system should be responsible for insuring that no person legally in this country should have to worry about the cost of serious medical problems including treatment, hospitalization and expensive medications. As citizens I believe we should be responsible for our day to day health care expenses including routine medical check-ups, non serious usauge of emergency facilities and equipment and short term medications.
QUESTION: What would the wait time in America be for treatment if every one had coverage like Canadians do? Let's make sure we are comparing Apple to Apple here.
Personally, coming from the 3rd world I think the public health system in Canada sucks and we have had very bad experiences with it. I blame the Government for not making it work right. It can and should.
I think health care, like food , shelter and education needs to be a human rights issue and everyone must be able to access it for free if they need it.
In Canada, if you have a serious illness you may be seen by a physician and treated by a hospital providing you live long enough to outlast the waiting lists. However, once treated, god forbid you need to maintain a drug therapy. This could set you back hundreds, even thousands per month. For this you will still need private heath coverage. So in the end you will still have to pay and still have to wait.
Well, Angeline I'll telll one thing. I know of people living in Toronto illegally and never heard any one them complaining about refusing treatment by any hospital in Ontario. I know one who had a major operation that saved his life. Our healthcare system is not perfect but it is pretty good. There are always personal cases but, that happens anywhere..people with a bad experiences which doesn't mean that the system doesn't work. I have a brother who's scyzophrenic and needs blood tests bi-weekly due to his medication and his doctor even arranged for his tests to be done in Mozambique, Africa while he was there on holidays, for free!! Believe me, I've lived in countries where they only dream of half of what we have.
I live in Ontario, so OHIP is the name of the game here. Our health care is excellent, the program is over 30 years old. Why haven't we expanded our program over time to include more things, prescriptions drugs, eye care, dentistry. It only makes sense to take a good program and make it better. One stop shopping should truly mean that and include everything.
We deserve it.
For me the question comes down to this.... If you don't have enough money should you die or be forced to watch your say your 10 year old daughter die? Or should you lose everything you worked your entire life to build because you got sick?
its really that simple. How could the most powerful country in the world allow this to happen?
Our wait times are perhaps a bit too long for treatment of non life threatening but the FACT is if you need immediate attention you get it in Canada andyou will never have to die or watch somebody you love die just because you don't have the money.
Obama makes the US go up many notches in my book.
At 21 my sister was diagnosed with an arachnoid cyst in her brain requiring a craniotomy and week hospital stay. Thankfully because we live in Canada, ALL of this was covered by OHIP. I could not imagine having to pay for something like this at 21 especially since in her instance it was life threatening.
If our Health Care system is so great, then why have I been waiting over a year for help. My High Functioning Autistic teen has been ill for over a year now. He was 2 half credits from his Diploma last March, when we had to remove him from school because he could no longer work, walk, talk and now can not feed himself, or do any of hs daily care. We have been waiting for tests and Drs; up to 8 months at a time, with no one really able to help. He presented with seizures over a year ago, and we are still waiting for the neccessary help. It took us 14 years to get him to the point of being actually able to get to the point of Graduation and college, and now we sit and wait for help. What does this tell you about our medical system?
Our Canadian Healthcare system is good. So good in fact that people from other countries import their relatives here to claim citizenship, and then without paying into it, as seniors mostly, receive transplants, drug benefits, and followup examinations. I have been working in healthcare all my life. I know this for a fact, as I encounter these people. One in particular that erks me if a man from Greece. He uses a Winnipeg address - which is the address of his cousin's pizza restaurant, as his. Comes to Canada twice a year for check ups and medication, then flies back to Greece to live. We Canadians are a warm and welcoming country. Where else in the world does a country offer such benefits. There are too many flaws to mention. Especially those that encounter cancer. There are few that end up with adequate insurance, and are forced to go on EI. We should be looking after our own first.
I am a Canadian by birth and have worked in the USA and Canada in healthcare as an RN for 15+ years. I would rather be sick in the USA than in Canada anyday. The public hospital in Las Vegas UMCSN, actually took care of numerous illegal aliens on that oncology unit at no cost and when the hospital flips the bill of over $1 million for cancer treatment for an illegal who pays the bill? That was one of the reasons that UMCSN closed their oncology unit. In Canada, the hospitals would not pay for the illegal aliens healthcare costs, but due to EMTALA, in the USA the hospitals do. By the way tonight in CANADA the better healthcare I had a physician in an ER refuse to reassess a patient for a stab wound with no lung sounds to one side cause he had been seen earlier, and the doctor did not order a new chest xray. He told the patient "don't bother coming back here". In the USA the doctor would have seen him for fear of being sued and I think fear of being sued really keeps you on your top game....
Lets not forget that it was released last week that Ontario paid $3500 per person for OHIP. $14000 for a family of 4 is 2-4 times the price of insurance in the US. But as long as people keep coming here for our "free" heathcare, the price will keep getting higher.
As a Canadian all I can say is that my extended family has received the best of care from our health care system, I know for sure that if any of us suffers a catasrophic illness, especially later in life, we will not lose everything we have worked for. Of any value that is.