Eight doctors from the U.S.-based Physicians for a National Health Program visited Toronto’s Women’s College Hospital for an inside look at Canada’s single-payer health care system. Hosting the trip was family physician Danielle Martin, chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare.
What is the most surprising thing you have learned so far?
I learned that doctors are compensated much better than what we presumed they were here and their work lives are very nice. In the U.S., most doctors are afraid of two things with a single-payer system: they will lose money – of course, they won’t say that – and that they are going to lose autonomy.
What is work life like for an American doctor?
You spend so much time hassling with insurance companies, you just can’t imagine. You have to fight with them to get paid.
Let me see, how can I express my feelings about this as eloquently as possible?
"Suck on that Republicans!"
What? Too gentle?
The United States is big enough and rich enough to have a single-payer system that could be the envy of the world. But unfortunately the idea of the "for the good of the people" has long been overtaken by greed and the 'every-man-for-himself' Republican mentality.
ReplyDelete~Canuck~
Do all of the people in the USA that are or want to be docotors just do it for the money? Don't any of them do it because they want to help people?
ReplyDeleteFrom World Health Organization's ranking of the world's health systems.
ReplyDeleteUnited States ranks #37
Morocco, Cyprus and Columbia all rank ahead of the US. and rank ahead of Canada (#30).
The GOP plan for health care will drop us closer to North Korea level of #167
Is this the "exceptional" Sarah preaches??
" But unfortunately the idea of the "for the good of the people" has long been overtaken by greed and the 'every-man-for-himself' Republican mentality."
ReplyDeleteThat sums it up nicely.
I'm Canadian our system isn't perfect but I can go to the doctor when I'm sick we even have a 1-800 number where 24hours a day you can reach a registered nurse or a registered dietitian. Everyone should be able to access health care without choosing between groceries or rent and your health!
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I find so amazing is how the Republicans get away with saying "we're not going to screw YOU out of your Social Security, Medicare, Health-care...
ReplyDeleteWe're screwing your CHILDREN out of THEIR SocSec, Medicare, Health-care, etc. etc."
They claim that SocSec/Medicare is broke - but everybody knows that's not true: you simply raise the income cap and it's fixed. It really IS just as simple as that.
You raise that point and members of the Republic Party start screaming "SOCIALISM!"
But it's not socialism to take a little bit of my money (4 cents on the dollar) to help poor people...
Socialism would take ALL of my money.
It's greed, plain and simple.
The love of money...
So much is racked up in student loans that we have to be focused on the money. If you want to help people, become a massage therapist (I am not joking) or a holistic practitioner of some sort. There is research as an area that one can go into to help people (to find the cure for cancer, for instance) but the jobs are full of super-academics who are as much mega-egos as star athletes.
ReplyDeleteWhen doctors are not dealing with insurance companies, they are having to deal with potential threats of law suits, spending time not with patients but in lengthy depositions.
I would NEVER become a doctor in the USA at this time. Helping people? One of my former GP's is living his dream with a small clinic that he runs with other doctors where he runs a clinic in weight loss, then spends six months a year with his wife in South America with Doctors Without Borders. He LOVES that the money he earns over here gets him to SA where he can help people with their basic needs-- Pap smears, general check-ups, basic pre-natal care-- OH! What Planned Parenthood does over here-- excuse me. . .
I hope I didn't come across as snarky here. Your question is very legitimate, but doctors over here who go into med school with the intent of being altruistic get burnt out. We have a plastic culture-- you'd have to be a glutton for punishment to become a doctor and be willing to live in poverty while living for ungrateful patients. :(
I can't understand how everybody doesn't want a one payer system. I have come to think it's because they are mind controled to think they really think we have such a great healthcare system, and they beleive the lies. I think all politicians should have their healthcare taken away from them why should we pay for it. They vote themselves raises ans really have healthcare we all would love to have.
ReplyDeleteI live in Canada. There are problems with our health care system (there can be waits for non emergency surgery) but compared to what my friends have in the States?
ReplyDeleteNirvana.
Example: my partner has had 4 surgeries because of cardiovascular disease. Quadruple bypass, 2 surgeries to unblock carotid arteries, surgery for a triple aneurysm in his tummy.
Cost to us? Nothing. How much would those surgeries cost in the States? How much would health care insurance premiums cost in the States?
We pay nothing to health care insurance companies. They basically do not exist here as they do in the States.
The system in Taiwan is very very good, even better than the Canadian model. They also have single payer.
Anonymous 9:48 AM wrote: I live in Canada. There are problems with our health care system (there can be waits for non emergency surgery) but compared to what my friends have in the States? …
ReplyDeleteSo do I, and I agree with what Anonymous wrote. And here's a small addition to it:
If, as a Canadian, you find yourself in a queue for treatement, think about this: Many of the people ahead of you in the lineup couldn't afford be in the queue at all if they were in the US system.
It's easy to have short lineups if only the well-to-do can afford to get in line.
now if we could just get this on msnbc with rachel or lawrence maybe it would finally get some play time on lamestream media. they seem so deaf, dumb and blind to dems efforts to make america better.
ReplyDeleteI heard something yesterday, I went to get my haircut and there was this older lady there with a broken foot with a pin sticking out of it, 2 days before was her surgery. Her husband fell 6 days before and broke his back and she had to do everthing for him. I heard her tell that they only put him in tracton but had to wait until the 25th of april for surgery, before medicare would pay, or they would have to pay $20,000. So I guess there are waits here too, we're just not aware of them. Another lie they feed us.
ReplyDeleteI've got a friend who is a doctor, actually she was my favorite doctor of all time, and she quit her practice because she and her staff spent a majority of their time dicking around with insurance companies, their bullshit paperwork, and their bullshit minutiae. One particular company would intentionally drag its feet in issuing payments, apparently hoping that the medical practices would get so tired of jousting with them that they'd simply write off the claims.
ReplyDeleteShe had a larger staff simply dealing with insurance paperwork than she did directly involved with patient care. She simply got so fed up that she threw in the towel. I can't say I blame her.
The Canadian system is INFINITELY better than ours. I know because my wife is Canadian as are all my in laws. I have also had minor interactions with their system personally and I found it to be equal or superior to our system in every way.
It is simply fear mongering by the insurance industry that fuels the batshit crazy nonsense you hear concerning "SOCIALIZED MEDICINE!"
If Canadian socialized medicine is so bad, how come it's cheaper, they cover EVERYONE, they have lower infant mortality rates, AND THEY LIVE LONGER!?
These fucksticks in the insurance industry would have us believe that a more expensive system that denies coverage, has piles more dead babies, and helps us die sooner is SOMEHOW better?
Am I missing something?
A single-payer system would certainly be an improvement of the current system. But, in truth, single-payer would do little or nothing about the main problem of healthcare in the US: costs.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter if the individual pays, the government pays, or insurers pay, costs are burdening the economy. So, it doesn't matter if the payments come from the left pocket, right pocket, or a shoebox--the costs eventually accrue to the population.
The UK system costs about 1/2 of the US system per capita, with EVERYONE--even visitors--covered. It's low overhead because the is no billing paperwork or documentation to be maintained. There are no surgeons profiting from performing an unnecessary procedure because the patient has the insurance to pay for it, which is a gigantic problem in the US. I can personally attest to three cases of different doctors erroneously recommending a mastectomy to females in my immediate family.
I just want to tell you Republicans that when Jesus said it is easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle than to get a rich man into heaven, it doesn't mean that rich people never get there, it just means that it's really hard because so many rich people are greedy and uncompassionate. But if you're rich, you actually CAN be compassionate if you want to. So don't lose hope.
ReplyDeletejoeymac,
ReplyDeleteI disagree with your assessment. I believe that a single payer system absolutely WOULD contain the insane cost increases we've seen in our medical system. Other nations haven't experienced the same level of medical cost inflation that we have. It is the profit motive in our system that produces uncontrollable costs.
We don't have a healthcare system, we have a wealth transfer and healthcare DENIAL system. As long as insurers, pharma, and other medical corporations have profit as their primary goal, we will be stuck with a system pretty much like the one we've got.
It's time we pulled our collective head out of our collective ass and realized that for profit healthcare is immoral, absolutely.
Healthcare IS a right and until we treat it as such, we are pissing on our most vulnerable citizens in favor of the fattest of fat cats.
My sister, a Canadian citizen now, was visiting us in the states. She threw her back out so severely she couldn't even get up out of her chair. We called an ambulance, the EMTs carried her out, took her to the hospital, where she was given an exam and strong prescription pain killers. She didn't pay a penny. The US services were reimbursed by the Canadian government.
ReplyDeleteConversely, when we visited her in Canada, my Dad had to go to the hospital emergency room. He was treated and a bill was sent to him in the states. He got good care, and the bill was way less than it would have been here in the US.
Seems like common sense - cut out the middle man
( insurance company) and you save money.
~Pogo