Here are some excerpts from a scathing Forbes article last year:

Canadian patients waited a record 21.2 weeks to receive treatment from a specialist after being referred by their general practitioner in 2017, according to the latest survey of wait times by the Fraser Institute, a Vancouver-based think tank. That's a week longer than last year -- and more than double the corresponding figure from 1993, when Fraser began keeping track. Patients with complex medical needs languished even longer. Those in need of neurosurgery, for instance, faced a median wait of nearly 33 weeks. For orthopedic surgery, wait times exceeded 41 weeks.

Rural Canadians faced similar delays. The median wait time for specialist treatment in New Brunswick was almost 42 weeks. In Nova Scotia, it was nearly 38 weeks. And on Prince Edward Island, over 32 weeks.

Canadians don't just wait to see doctors -- they also have to stand in line for diagnostic tests. Patients can expect to wait roughly a month for CT scans and ultrasounds. People who need an MRI stand by for nearly 11 weeks.

Nor is it true that Canadians enjoy "free" health care. Treatment delays cost Canadian patients an estimated $1.7 billion a year in lost time and wages. Canadians also pay steep taxes to both the federal and provincial governments to fund their health system. The average family of four has to shell out more than $12,000 a year in taxes to cover its share of the cost.

That sum is insufficient to buy the level of care Canadians actually want -- especially given that they face no deductibles, co-pays, or other measures that could cause them to moderate their demand for care.

Canada's provincial governments, each of which run the single-payer system within their borders, don't directly ration the supply of care. They force providers to do it for them by making the practice of medicine miserable.

Doctors do not work directly for the government. But their only "client" is the provincial government that pays them. And Medicare's payment rates are so low that entering the medical field or investing in healthcare infrastructure seems to many like it won't ever pay off.

Rather than pay doctors more, or make medical education more affordable, Canada finds it cheaper to import international medical graduates who are willing to accept what the single-payer system will give them.




[Post edited by Hoos Operator at 09/13/2019 11:02AM]