Debunking Canadian health care myths

[DainBramaged]

As a Canadian living in the United States for the past 17 years, I am frequently asked by Americans and Canadians alike to declare one health care system as the better one.

Often I'll avoid answering, regardless of the questioner's nationality. To choose one or the other system usually translates into a heated discussion of each one's merits, pitfalls, and an intense recitation of commonly cited statistical comparisons of the two systems.

Because if the only way we compared the two systems was with statistics, there is a clear victor. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to dispute the fact that Canada spends less money on health care to get better outcomes.

Yet, the debate rages on. Indeed, it has reached a fever pitch since President Barack Obama took office, with Americans either dreading or hoping for the dawn of a single-payer health care system. Opponents of such a system cite Canada as the best example of what not to do, while proponents laud that very same Canadian system as the answer to all of America's health care problems. Frankly, both sides often get things wrong when trotting out Canada to further their respective arguments.

As America comes to grips with the reality that changes are desperately needed within its health care infrastructure, it might prove useful to first debunk some myths about the Canadian system.

Myth: Taxes in Canada are extremely high, mostly because of national health care.

In actuality, taxes are nearly equal on both sides of the border. Overall, Canada's taxes are slightly higher than those in the U.S. However, Canadians are afforded many benefits for their tax dollars, even beyond health care (e.g., tax credits, family allowance, cheaper higher education), so the end result is a wash. At the end of the day, the average after-tax income of Canadian workers is equal to about 82 percent of their gross pay. In the U.S., that average is 81.9 percent.

Myth: Canada's health care system is a cumbersome bureaucracy.

The U.S. has the most bureaucratic health care system in the world. More than 31 percent of every dollar spent on health care in the U.S. goes to paperwork, overhead, CEO salaries, profits, etc. The provincial single-payer system in Canada operates with just a 1 percent overhead. Think about it. It is not necessary to spend a huge amount of money to decide who gets care and who doesn't when everybody is covered.

Myth: The Canadian system is significantly more expensive than that of the U.S.Ten percent of Canada's GDP is spent on health care for 100 percent of the population. The U.S. spends 17 percent of its GDP but 15 percent of its population has no coverage whatsoever and millions of others have inadequate coverage. In essence, the U.S. system is considerably more expensive than Canada's. Part of the reason for this is uninsured and underinsured people in the U.S. still get sick and eventually seek care. People who cannot afford care wait until advanced stages of an illness to see a doctor and then do so through emergency rooms, which cost considerably more than primary care services.

What the American taxpayer may not realize is that such care costs about $45 billion per year, and someone has to pay it. This is why insurance premiums increase every year for insured patients while co-pays and deductibles also rise rapidly.

Myth: Canada's government decides who gets health care and when they get it.While HMOs and other private medical insurers in the U.S. do indeed make such decisions, the only people in Canada to do so are physicians. In Canada, the government has absolutely no say in who gets care or how they get it. Medical decisions are left entirely up to doctors, as they should be.

There are no requirements for pre-authorization whatsoever. If your family doctor says you need an MRI, you get one. In the U.S., if an insurance administrator says you are not getting an MRI, you don't get one no matter what your doctor thinks — unless, of course, you have the money to cover the cost.


MUCH more at link

http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_12523427#

[niyad]

1. it surprises me that this was in the DP--which is becoming almost as much of a reichwing rag as the

fishwrap known officially as the gazette telegraph.

thank you for sharing this--will definitely be passing it along here in red country.

[DainBramaged]

2. They are becoming rags because the Freepturds don't understand computers

(the same people who think microwave ovens are tools of the guberment), but the newspaper serves a dual purpose, toilet paper and reading material.


:sarcasm:

[jinto86]

3. Can anyone tell me if this myth is true or not

So as anyone who has seen any of most posts could tell you, I care a lot about autism spectrum people, perhaps to a fault but I don't think so. I have read a lot of articles by Estee Klar, one of the leaders in the ND movement, and she sometimes talks about having to come to America to get son therapy as all that is offered in Canada is ABA (and she tends not to believe in ABA, for right or wrong I won't say, but certainly ABA is not right for everyone) because thats all that the single payer system will pay for. Can anyone tell me if this is true or not, because it certainly does scare me if it is.?

[Canuckistanian]

4. I'm not sure about the details in Alberta

But my son is autistic (high functioning). We've never had any problems getting speech therapists, occupational therapists and psych evaluations and therapy and they've all been covered.

Now if you can't get a service in Canada, it's probably because there aren't enough specialists OR the service is not judged to be essential or is experimental by the province's medical board.

Mind you, there's a lot of debate about the best therapies for autism and it's hard to measure the success of these therapies. The American system seems to offer more in the way of "creative" therapies, whereas the Canadian system seems to go with "tried and true" solutions.

And there's a basic rule in the Canadian system - the Doctor is boss. You just can't make your own decisions and expect to get reimbursed for it. Find a doctor who you know specializes in your particular autism problem, then work with them.

But if you're going outside the system, don't expect help.