The Health Care Disaster in Canada

By D!ck Morris
Wednesday, November 04, 2009

After more than a decade of public health care with mandatory coverage, so many Canadian doctors have left the practice and so many young people have entered other fields that Canada ranks 26th of 28 developed nations in its ratio of physicians to population. Once, Canada ranked among the leaders in the number of physicians -- but that was before government health care drove doctors out of the practice in droves.

The fundamental fact is that we cannot cover 36 million new patients without more doctors and nurses, much less with the declining census of medical professionals the Canadian experience points to.

A recent survey of doctors by the Pew Institute found that 45 percent of all practicing doctors would consider retiring or closing their practices if the Barack Obama health care bill passes. This scarcity of medical personnel heightens the likelihood of draconian rationing, lengthy waiting lists and lower quality medical care for all of us, particularly for the elderly.

This physician shortage leads to massive and never-ending waiting lists. In 1993, for example, there was an average wait of 9.3 weeks from the time a patient got a referral from a general practitioner to the time he could see a specialist in Canada. By 1997, the wait was up to 11.7 weeks. Now it's 17.3 weeks -- over four months just to see a specialist!

In Canada, unions control the entire health care process. In Manitoba, for example, there is an eight-month wait for colonoscopies, yet the unions do not permit weekend or evening procedures, thereby extending the waiting lists.

The unions are doing to health care in Canada what they have done to education in America -- stifling creativity, reinforcing bureaucracy and extending waiting times.

Because of these long waits for colonoscopies, there is now a 25 percent higher incidence of colon cancer in Canada than in the United States. And, because the leading drugs that we routinely use to treat the malady in the U.S. are banned in Canada because of their high cost, 41 percent of Canadians who get the cancer die of it, compared with only 32 percent in the United States. Overall, the cancer death rate in Canada runs 16 percent higher than in the United States. Cancer does not wait for waiting lists to clear.

The potential of health care changes to shrink the doctor population, exacerbating scarcity and extending waits, is even worse now that it is apparent that we have overestimated the number of doctors in the U.S. Where we once thought there were 840,000 doctors, the total is now estimated to be only 760,000.

The proposed $400 billion cut in Medicare raises the probability that more and more of those doctors who do practice will refuse to accept Medicare patients, aggravating the doctor shortage among the elderly, the population that needs them the most.

As Obama's program moves through Congress, despite the fierce opposition of a majority of American voters in virtually all the polls, it becomes clear that those moderates who vote for it will face harsh retribution at the polls from their outraged constituents. A kind of suicide-pact mentality is gripping the Democratic majorities in Congress, akin to that which came over it when Congress passed President Clinton's tax package in 1993.

This disregard for the will of the marginal voter may make sense for those who come from safe districts -- it makes none for those who come from swing districts. For them, suicidal conduct leads to political demise. [b][/b]

Well you know the problems run very deep here. There was a time, around the time of Lester B. Pearson, when Canadians were working towards social reforms. Those continued forward with Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
Then a guy named Brian Mulrooney, sold the country down the river.
It was a type of coup, led by the US and he was just a stooge for the US business interests, and with Free Trade as their banner cry, they went about with privatization and selling off assets and crippling the economy with interest rates of as much as 20 percent for a mortgage, and plunged the country into debt.

No one seemed to be able to stop him, or the Conservative party at that time.

So then from that point forward Canada became an unofficial state in the union and Alberta was just given over to the US essentially for the oil.

Oh sure none of it was really obvious, including the bribe Mulrooney received and was charged with, but he ended up being awarded a million dollars in a unlawful arrest suit, when the prosecution failed to make its case.

There are lots of books on the subject like this one...
http://www.amazon.ca/Take-Crime-Corruption-Greed-Mulroney/dp/0770427081

So then no longer left leaning, and helping the poor, with welfare and the like, over time, things got progressively worse, until they were even cutting single mothers off of welfare and that sort of thing.

But the real problem is that Canadians are poor. They have no money.

The average wage index is of course skewed by the unbelievable gap between the rich and the poor.

So you can look at the stats and say well how come we can't pay doctors more?

Its because the people are not just broke, they are desperately broke, have been for 20 or 30 years, barely make their mortgage payments are up to their eye balls in debt and have no disposable income.

Not the top 1%, they are gazillionaires. The next class works for the government, and then below that are the peons by the millions who at most get by on about 20 dollars per hour, and have to raise kids, maybe pay 250,000 to put one through university, have a mortgage on a house that costs 400,000 a car that cost 40,000 well do the math.

How do you do any of that, on what 20 to 25 dollars per hour.

What do doctors get?

Well lets look at Dentists. 500 dollars per hour.
Oopsy! How does a person making 20 dollars per hour pay a dentist who makes 500 dollars per hour?
Only if they have insurance at work.

Are doctors any different?

An xray lab can make a million dollars a year easy.

But surely all this is because of Liberal government intervention and hunger for power!?

This is worth looking at...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_B._Pearson

But unless you are over 30 at least, you wouldn't know that Canada died.

It's dead. It's the land of the living dead. There didn't used to be beggars on every corner. Houses were 40,000 and wages then were 20 to 25 dollars per hour. You know? A car was maybe 5,000

It's a ticking time bomb right now because only those who sold up, during the real estate boom, can afford their house.

No young person could afford a 450,000 house, and that's average in most big cities.

What do they earn? 15 or 16 dollars per hour?

So the doctor problem is not just a doctor problem its an everybody problem. Except the rich. So tax the rich.

They are the only ones here who have a dime to spare.

So after Lester B. Pearson, brought in universal health care, and all the rest, Pierre Elliot Trudeau brought in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And various other things. Tried wage and price controls, and even brought in martial law once.
Stood down American imperialism on numerous occasions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Elliott_Trudeau

Then you get to Brian Mulroney...

Who got rid of all of Canada's manufacturing, and sent Canada into a spiral of economic ruin.

"Annual budget deficits ballooned to record levels, reaching $42 billion in his last year of office. These deficits grew the national debt dangerous close to the psychological benchmark of 100% of GDP, further weakening the Canadian dollar and damaging Canada's international credit rating."

An annual debt equal to the entire gross domestic product of the country. Ok, in Italy, they would have knee capped the bastard long before that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Mulroney

I've been to Canada a couple of times when I lived up in the suburbs of Detroit. I've been to Windsor and Toronto and I thought that the cities were very clean and well taken care off compared to US cities.
As far as I noticed, there wasn't that single part of town that is completely run down and struck by poverty like you'll find in the US.
I like Canada when I was there, I'm not gonna lie. I think Toronto is a beautiful city. The only thing that bugs me is the weather.

You know a doctor will look at the situation and say, I have to pay the mortgage on my million dollar house in the suburbs, I have to pay 2 million for the equipment in my office, I have to pay rent in office building of 10,000 per month, and I have to pay for my staff, who might be getting 35 or 45 dollars per hour for qualified trained assistants.

But what does any of that have to do with the guy, who takes home 2,000 per month, has to pay 1,000 for his house, 500 for his car, and buy gas and pay 300 for bills 200 for taxes, his wife already has to work or they don't own a house because that's already over 2,000.

Could he pay a doctor if he didn't have health care?

Not a chance. He would die. What does it cost to stay in the hospital one day? 500 dollars and more for anything they might do like xrays. 1500 dollars a day?

Where would he get that?

Isn't that the situation in the US?

Canadians can't even afford to stay in their own hotels.
They cost 2 and 3 hundred a night. Maybe a discount motel, but not a large hotel.

At some point it all has to hit the fan. All this inflation has ruined the country.

Well I believe that that's exactly what the US is heading for.

Middle Class incomes haven't increased since the 70s, tuition has skyrocketed, pension plans have decreased, oil/gas has gotten more expensive, the cost of living has gotten more expensive in general, and emplyers make their employees pay for their Health coverage more and more every year.
The average work hours for a married middle class income couple have increased by 300 hours, most of that the woman has had to pick up, just in order to maintain their middle class lifestyle.
And all this happened even though the economy has been booming, yet all that money went straight to the top 1% of America's income class, they're the only ones who have realy been profitting from all this economic growth.
All the while, job security has become unstable even on the professional level.


Sooner or later you'll see a huge shift from lower Middle Class to lower class and from upper middle class to lower middle class and so on.

That's why I prefer a Social Market economy, because THAT's what it's all about. It ensures Competition and a Private Market, but it also keeps a certain Social balance and protects the average citizen from layoffs, exploitation, etc.

Its fun to do the math...

average wage in Canada... 22.32 per hour.
average house price in Canada 326,832

monthly payment $1,966.52 per month by today's rates amortized over 25 years with a 5 year term at 5.35%

If you had no down payment. Now then how does a person making 22 per hour, save what? 50,000? And what difference would that make? 300 less?

It's just plain crazy.

You see the problem here is the stats, include the Dentist getting 500 per hour, the politicians getting 150 per hour, executives getting 500 per hour, and that ends up giving you 22 dollars per hour on average. But that's bs. Look in the paper. The highest paying job is maybe 16 dollars per hour.

That's what people are getting unless they work for the government.
Trades people make more, but they don't work all year round.

So really the proper statistic of the masses, is about 16 dollars per hour.

So, is it any wonder they all shop at Walmart?

I drive delivery at night, so along with the thousand people I see collecting bottles out of garbage cans, including the elderly and infirm, all night, in the morning, there are another thousand combing the gutters and sidewalks for cigarette butts, because cigarettes are over 10 dollars a pack here.

Just ordinary people, not homeless people. Just ordinary people out for a walk, looking for butts in alley ways.

That's reality.

I see quite a few homeless on the streets of Montreal, so Vancouver is not unique in that regard, homelessness is everywhere.Likely the highest number per capita is the Maritimes and especially Newfoundland.

I believe ricks, where you live it is one of the most expensive places to live in Canada. What is the average rent for a 5 1/2 in Vancouver? $1500/month?

One of the reasons it is so expensive to live in Vancouver is probably the same reason why Tokyo is probably expensive, real estate is quite limited.

Toronto is also very expensive to live in.

Quebec is one the cheapest places to live roughly $750 a month, depending on where part of Montreal you are in.I live in a co-op, where the rent is subsidized, but tenents, on paper own the property and are responsible for the upkeep of the residences.

Quebec, however is one the highest taxed province in the country.

And when they have none, who ya gonna tax then?

My point is, keep taxing them till they flee. Then there's really going to be nothing. Ask California how that's working out these days.

Because all they know is French.

Couldn't resist.

And where are Dentists going to flee to? It's not like the US has a shortage of Dentists and Canada is not really surrounded by tons of countries that people could flee to.

Moot question.

Mooter answer.