It's Christmas morning at 0530 and I haven't slept all night. I'm in a hotel 1000 miles from home, sitting alone taking care of 2 dogs and 2 cats because my Mom is in the hospital. I sit on Reddit because I can't sleep and it's a nice distraction while a wait for news of her well-being.
I am a Canadian citizen and have a lifetime of personal experience with the socialized healthcare system.
When you speak of human life being precious, believe me, I know. If I could wave my hand and make everyone healthy and never have to fear a doctors visit, I would.
But that's not the way things are.
Economics dictate that someone foot the bill, and what we are talking about here is best way to do this.
Sure, universal health care sounds great. It's a worry free system to know that you'll always be covered. Some people don't mind the 4-6 hour waits in emergency rooms.
But my Mom is going in for surgery this morning, provided that some other more pressing emergency doesn't present itself first. And therein lies the problem.
I am my brothers keeper.
In a socialized system, not only are my tax dollars paying for the indiscretions and recklessness of my fellow citizen, an irresponsible teenager who ODs will take priority over my Mom, and I'm NOT OK with that.
Not only do people in socialized health care areas take greater risks, the inefficiencies of the bureaucracy mean higher expenses (taxes) and lower service (increased wait times) for all concerned.
I'll put it another way: If you had cancer, would you rather be a Canadian citizen, or the pet of a Canadian citizen? You need only look at the level of service afforded to our animals to see how a private health care system would work.
Your dog has cancer? Sure, bring him in today, we'll have the surgery booked this week and it should only cost you a few thousand dollars.
This is how the healthcare system should work.
Instead, it is an endless grind, being pushed quickly from one doctor to another, attempting to give a diagnosis in as short a time a possible (often times incorrectly), since they are so overwhelmingly understaffed.
Dual Public / Private is no solution either. Why should I be forced to pay twice for the same service. In addition, how is a clinic supposed to stay profitable if the nearest government hospital is giving away service for free? It wreaks havoc on the pricing models.
It's like opening a fine, high end restaurant and having the neighbours open a fast food join next door and give away their meals for free.
Sure, you'd have some customers, but not enough to stay open for long.
At the end of the day I don't expect much to change here. Most Canadians are so proud of their health care system they don't really take a hard look at its shortcomings. But believe me, the cracks are there and you only need to look with unbiased eyes to see them.
Better yet, just talk to a nurse or doctor and ask them how over-worked and under paid they are.
By creating artificial barriers to entry for healthcare practitioners, we limit their supply which increases demand, elevating costs.
This is basic economics.
Why can't a Ukrainian or Mexican Doctors or Nurses easily convert their licences to Canadian, and have to instead settle for service jobs when they enter the country?
This system is seriously broken with no hope of being fixed anytime soon. I just hope that when my time comes for medical treatment, I'm in a position to be a patient abroad.
...
Mom will be OK. It's a precautionary surgery at this point, but I'm hoping for the best.
Sorry for the rant. Long night.