Canada’s national health functions as badly as all other socialised services

In an effort to avoid a two-tiered health care system where wealthy people can get health care but the poor can't, Canada has solved the problem admirably: dogs can get health care but people can't, according to Charles Jarvis, Chairman and Chief Executive of United Seniors Association.

Canada's health care system is deficient in many other ways says Jarvis:

It is unable to provide sufficient money, resulting in a shortage of doctors and bailouts for deficit-ridden hospitals.

It is unable to provide universal access to care; typically patients must wait an average of three months or more for elective surgery.

The quality of care is not as good as that provided in the United States because patients often cannot receive needed treatments for months and are criminalised if they try to pay privately for services that are provided by the government-run health care system.

In Canada's system, all are not treated the same: pets can receive a CT scan in 24 hours, while humans wait longer than three months or do without.

Canada spends only 9 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health care and is able to cover all of its citizens. Jarvis shows that at least in Canada, you get what you pay for.

Source: Charles W. Jarvis and Dr. Merrill Mathews Jr. Can 7,700 Doctors Be Wrong About Health Care? United Seniors Association, September 26, 2003.

For text http://www.unitedseniors.org/pressroom/articles.cfm?mode=view&id=106
For more on Health Care (Moving Toward Universal Coverage) http://www.ncpa.org/iss/hea/

FMF Policy Bulletin/ 14 October 2003