Canadian health care myths: Every myth is exposed and proven to be false

[Better Believe It]

In light of the growing attacks by the right-wing against the Canadian health care system, I think a repost of this article will help spread the truth about Canadian health care among those who didn't read this article last month.

Debunking Canadian health care myths
By Rhonda Hackett
Denver Post
June 7, 2009


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.

To read the detailed debunking of the following myths please click on:

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_12523427

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

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

Myth: The Canadian system is significantly more expensive than that of the U.S.

Myth: Canada's government decides who gets health care and when they get it.

Myth: There are long waits for care, which compromise access to care.

Myth: Canadians are paying out of pocket to come to the U.S. for medical care

Myth: Canada is a socialized health care system in which the government runs hospitals and where doctors work for the government.

Myth: There aren't enough doctors in Canada.

[earth mom]

1. People around here need to watch the movie SICKO & educate themselves. nt

[Lorax7844]

9. yes they do. here is a link to watch it for free.

here ya go:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6646340600856118396&ei=CCI8SqhlkfqsApez7KsK&q=sicko

[mistertrickster]

10. Or better yet, "Sick Around the World" with T. R. Reid. Rent it from Netflix.

It's an hour long Frontline special in which he looks at five industrialized countries, interviews doctors and patients.

[Wednesdays]

2. K&R

:kick:

[Spazito]

3. Here is another article debunking the myths...

U.S. health care lies about Canada (Part 1)

Another American blowhard
Just who is this jerk, Rick Scott of propaganda-mongering Conservatives for Patients’ Rights? He and his group are fabricating negatives about Canada’s health care system and I resent this. I am an American who has lived in Canada for more than 35 years. I can vouch that the system is more than adequate and is not run by civil servants but by doctors who are able to treat everyone, rich or poor.
Mr. Scott, and other conservatives (code for rich) are against universal health care without any justification whatsoever. Their criticisms are in accurate and should not be broadcast.
Where are the ethics in network broadcasting? I saw one of Scott’s ads on CNN recently and wondered why the same curation of content was not imposed on CNN advertising messages as is upheld editorially. If CNN is unwilling to vet content, then where is the FCC?

The real story
Here are the facts as to why Canada’s medical system, far from perfect, is dramatically better than America’s:
1. It is cheaper even though it takes care of the entire population, or 10% of GDP compared with 15% in the U.S.

2. Canada’s health care system which fully looks after 32 million people costs roughly what the private-sector health insurance companies make in profits in the United States looking after less than half the population for excessive premiums
.
3. Canada’s health care system is cheaper still if the litigation costs of fighting over medical bills is eliminated as it is when the government is the sole-insurer. Estimates are that court costs and judgments add another 2 to 3% of GDP to the total medical tab.

4. Canada’s health care system enhances economic productivity. Workers diagnosed with illnesses can still change employers and be employable because they are not rejected by employers with health benefits due to pre-conditions.

more

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/francis/archive/2009/05/12/health-care-lies-about-canda.aspx

Now part 2

U.S. healthcare lies Part II

Universal health care is a cornerstone of smart economic policy. Take, for example, the effect of guaranteed health care on economic activity, business expansion or the public's sense of wellbeing.



If a worker in Canada or Europe or Japan has lost his or her job this recession, it’s a psychological and financial blow.
But if an American worker loses his or her job, the family faces financial ruin if sickness strikes any member because they are without healthcare coverage. Bridge coverage is available but unaffordable for anyone but the wealthy.
Worse yet, if a major illness is diagnosed during unemployment, a workers becomes unemployable, bringing about a life sentence of poverty.
Little wonder, then, that consumer spending has ground to halt in the United States which makes the economic meltdown that much harder to combat or ever solve.
This underscores the fact that universal health care is not just smart and fair social policy but it is also smart economic policy.


more

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/francis/archive/2009/05/13/u-s-healthcare-lies-part-ii.aspx


A little info about the author of the article, she is VERY conservative as is the newspaper this was published in, shocked the crap out of me to see it!

[Canuckistanian]

4. Good post, Spazito

And the articles written by Diane Francis, no less, the Empress of Capitalism herself.

Impressive!

[Spazito]

5. Thanks! I tell ya, Canuckistanian, it truly did shock the hell out of me when...

I saw who wrote them AND the fact that Conrad Black's former Flagship paper the National Post printed them, for a monent there it was an upside down world for me, lol!

[justinsb]

7. As a Dual Citizen living in Canada

I concur. Canada's system is better. It's not even a contest - the US doesn't have a system (every man for himself cannot be considered a SYSTEM.)

Access to health care in Canada is better, easier, actually involves less bureaucracy and (on the rare occasions when I have to pay for something) cheaper. The taxes here are actually pretty much in line with the US and we have less debt. Canada does sometimes lose Doctors to the US - and that's a good thing. The ones who move south do it for the money. Doctors here are very well paid, so I don't feel bad at all about losing doctors who want even more and care about money more than patients.

I should also add that I have a few lingering health problems as a result of not having health care (in the US) as a child.

[Spazito]

8. Your point re the Doctors who go to the US is a very good one, imo..

"Canada does sometimes lose Doctors to the US - and that's a good thing. The ones who move south do it for the money."

When the paycheque is the priority, the patient becomes the 'means to the end' as opposed to 'the best interests of the patient'.

[mvd]

6. Thanks, there's a LOT of disinfo. on this subject

:hi: