Daimnation!: Canada already has "American-style" health care

November 03, 2006

Canada already has "American-style" health care

We're just ignoring reality in our ideological and mad refusal to consider alternatives to the supposed "one-tier" system. I have no hope the Conservative goverment will dare do anything substantive for reform without a majority. Even then I have grave doubts.

Canada lags far behind other countries except the United States in an international study of effective primary health care for patients released Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund.
The survey of more than 6,000 doctors in seven countries gave Canada poor marks on several aspects of patient care, including wait times for tests, use of electronic medical records, doctors available after hours, multi-discipline teams to treat chronic illness and financial incentives for improving quality of care.

The survey suggested Canada has a long way to go on many fronts to catch up with the other countries, which included the United Kingdom, Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Germany.

For instance, only 47 per cent of Canadian doctors have arrangements for after-hours care so people can avoid going to an emergency room, compared with 95 per cent in the Netherlands. Only the United States is lower than Canada at 40 per cent...

-Only 23 per cent use electronic medical records, the lowest percentage and far behind 98 per cent in the Netherlands...

-Canada had the lowest rate of doctors giving plans for home care to patients with chronic diseases...

Meanwhile, The Globe's gorgeous Gloria Galloway gave us the facts yesterday, nothing but the facts. The way the Globe's reporters editorialize in their stories increasingly makes me think they really do work for the Crvena Zvezda:

Health-care bill keeps rising, but at a less feverish pace[;] Advocates of public system applaud news
OTTAWA -- Health-care expenditures across Canada rose more slowly last year than they did the year before, news that weakens arguments for increased private care and bolsters the federal call for guaranteed waiting times...

Health-care expenditures by provinces, territories and the federal government rose by an estimated 6.5 per cent in the last fiscal year and are predicted to rise by 5.7 per cent this year...

Well, that's only twice the inflation rate but I guess all those silly little glitches in the system are just going to go away and no real changes are needed. Problem solved. Thanks for the relief, GGG.