Canadian Politics Today

...a simple health care system?

Everyone knows it’s no harder than running a 7-11!

Why did you even bother to reply if that was all you could manage?

I do think he has a valid point...

Health care is a huge complex system, with hundreds of hospitals, thousands of workers, and billions of dollars at play. Even if things work well 99% of time (not that I think it does), you will still find occasional problems from time to time.

That said, I do think our health care system is flawed. I wish we would move to a system more in line with the U.K. (where they have a national system that covers everyone, but private insurance/hospitals are still allowed.). But, if anyone even hints at "private insurance" they get accused of wanting to "Americanize" our system. People really do get polarized over this.

Emergency rooms are a problem. I've actually left emergency when the wait times got too excessive. Part of that problem is that many people don't have family doctors, and as a result use Emergency care as their primary health care provider.

I do think he has a valid point...

Health care is a huge complex system, with hundreds of hospitals, thousands of workers, and billions of dollars at play. Even if things work well 99% of time (not that I think it does), you will still find occasional problems from time to time.

That said, I do think our health care system is flawed. I wish we would move to a system more in line with the U.K. (where they have a national system that covers everyone, but private insurance/hospitals are still allowed.). But, if anyone even hints at "private insurance" they get accused of wanting to "Americanize" our system. People really do get polarized over this.

Emergency rooms are a problem. I've actually left emergency when the wait times got too excessive. Part of that problem is that many people don't have family doctors, and as a result use Emergency care as their primary health care provider.

I agree with your points. Having lived in a number of different places in Canada I have had that problem of finding a family doctor. Often you find that they are already full to the gunwales with patients. I assume this is partly due to our ageing  population. Luckily I haven't needed a doctor very often but when I did need one such as for a relapse of Malaria, I had no choice but to head for emerg. Also, from what I have noticed, the UK system does of combined state/private access does seem to work well. The same type of system in the US ain't so good. I'm of the idea that certain things ought to be socialized (health, education, welfare) so as to make sure the outcomes are best for those who need the service, not just shareholders. we need some updates/repairs, but I hope we keep to the same basic concepts. 

I have been posting about this for 10 years on MLW.

Also, I have been suggesting solutions.  Canada is actually well positioned to fix it.

All that is due to deliberate government policy.

I don't think its deliberate as in "we want to hurt people". I think its a case where they have conflicting demands (keep costs low, keep universality, give fast care, etc.), and they just don't make the right decision about which of those to prioritize all the time.

They've got much better wait times in many European countries.

Yes they do.

Of course, those European countries tend to mix private and public health care. In fact, Canada is almost the only country in the western world that takes an "all public financed" approach.

We need some radical re-thinking.  The people who know and design the system today can't imagine anything better.

What if we reduced the number of doctor spaces in medical school but made medical school free in exchange for other concessions ?  What if we charged for some services but guaranteed wait times for non-paid services, with a cash payout when it wasn't met ?   What if we brought in overseas doctors for periods of time to alleviate wait times for certain services ?  What if First Nations reserves built hospitals that provided services with foreign doctors to compete with for-profit medical services like MRIs ?

I just thought of those ideas with no idea of if they were feasible, and no knowledge of the issues but have you heard anything new/interesting proposed recently ?

I heard a radio piece about hospital planners meeting with business people years ago.  The business people pointed out that MRIs were not being used at NIGHT !  What kind of manager would not see that as a constraint ?  That made me realize that the medical system is not being run by competent managers but by medical people who fall into management.  I also read something recently about operating rooms being vacant due to doctor vacations.

Yes, running a hospital is complex.  So is running an airport.  Or Amazon.  There is no reason it can't be much better and Canadians - especially liberals - need to demand better of our system.  It's a shame, and it falls upon us for not demanding better.

Do you think the issues with our healthcare system are so dire that we need "radical re-thinking"? Because frankly if you show up to an emergency room with a life-threatening problem, you're seen and cared for immediately

That is not a metric for how successful we are, unfortunately.  That is a basic requirement of the system.

. Wait time problems are for non-emergency care and diagnostics and elective procedures. If you're severely ill or your life is in danger, you are treated immediately without having to pay out of pocket or negotiate with insurance providers, etc. So I don't think we have a dire problem that requires "radical" change. We have a relatively minor issue with it taking far too long for non-essential services.

I learned a good lesson in business about 5 years ago: there are always 3 groups to satisfy when working on an endeavour.  There are the customers, the workers, and the owners of the enterprise. In healthcare, this roughly equates to patients, healthcare workers, and taxpayers.  The system has to constantly improve in terms of timing, quality of care, and cost over time.  It has to.

You can't measure it by "my life was saved" - or you will constantly be comparing it to the worst aspects of the American system, and will eventually compare favourably only to that, not to European systems.  The Ontario Liberals seem to have been stealthily cutting back somehow on education and healthcare, I suspect to balance the budget.  My wife has been saying that the school board has increased class sizes but it hasn't been reported.

The press is the proxy for the owners/taxpayers in the equation I put above, but they are no longer up to the task of monitoring the system.  We have to do it ourselves.  And if we take care of all three groups as a negotiation, it doesn't have to be about party politics.  In fact, party politics will destroy our healthcare system because people will defend a bad system for party loyalty and identity purposes.