gamer173's Blog

Completed in 1970, this socialized health plan provides free public healthcare. Every Canadian receives free doctors’ visits, free hospital care, free surgery, and free medicine while in the hospital. So well known and regarded, Canada’s healthcare system has long been looked to as a shining example of what socialized medicine could be and even won an international award for excellence in 1993.
  Even though Canada’s Healthcare plan has had such a positive history it is now plagued with problems. Some of these problems include lack of doctors, lack of beds and supplies, and very long waiting periods for medical attention. Because of these problems arising in Canada’s healthcare there has been quite a debate going on in Canada over socialized medicine. Many people argue that these problems are due to the fallacies of socialized medicine claiming,

  “Socialized medicine, like all other forms of socialism, is a world-wide failure. As people throughout the world from the Soviet Union to South America are learning, socialism cannot work. Socialized medicine results in skyrocketing demand for nominally “free” health care, doctors being over-burdened, medical services steadily deteriorating, and endless waiting periods for health services”(Wollstein 24).
  Apparently the Canadian government feels that an extreme waiting list will not kill you. This is not so when headlines like “Lack of beds and long lines killed my hubby, wife claims” appear in their newspapers. But even if the wait does not kill you, data published by Statistics Canada indicate that 45% of all patients waiting for healthcare say they are in pain. Some of these waits can be up to 6 months and according to Mr. Walker of the Fraser Institute, “The physical and psychological pain can be devastating.”

  These lists have become so bad that many Canadians are now crossing the border into the United States to receive medical treatment. This phenomenon of border crossing became prevalent in 1987 and has grown larger year by year. In fact by 1994 over 30% of Canadians have crossed the United States border for medical treatment of one type or another. Border hopping to avoid lines has now become a common practice for anyone who can afford to pay for medical services in American hospitals. Unless the Canadian government owns up to its responsibilities this problem is going to continue to grow. In fact people on waiting lists grow each year by 20%.
  Due to lack of money for services and lack of doctors, patients are placed on long waiting lists. These waiting lists are so severe that women, on average, wait 6 months just for a pap smear and depending on the seriousness of your case you can be seen as early as 3.5 weeks for chemotherapy or up to 33 weeks for orthopedic surgery. Either way both of these waits are exceedingly long. In fact, a 1993 study found that Canadian cancer patients were waiting an average of three times longer than patients in the Untied States for treatment and one third longer than what their doctors thought was clinically reasonable. Even the wait that Canadian doctors deemed clinically reasonable was 33% to 50% longer than what United States doctors thought reasonable. Is this the type of healthcare you want for your family?