I agree with you Gayle, getting Canada’s health care system going was not easy and was fraught with fear mongering and such. However, it is the one thing that I think we can be proud of as Canadians in that we did not cave in to the fear but saw what the potential good there could be for the majority.

It’s not about the hospitals, it’s about getting people IN to the hospitals. The insurance, not the actual provision of care. Yes, John Hopkins is a great hospital. Yes, it’s in the United States.

There are over 300 million people in the United States.

Very, very, very few of them have the option of going to John Hopkins when they need medical attention. In fact, a great many of them don’t have the option of going to ANY hospital when they need medical attention, at least unless they want to face bankrupting their family over it. So… a whole lot of good having John Hopkins in the country does them. I mean sure, be proud you have this really great hospital… but maintain some perspective on what that actually means as far as medical care for the average American is concerned.

And I appreciate bashing the government over waste and inefficiency is a popular national past-time all over the world, and it’s often entirely warranted… but please try to take an objective look at the facts. Even in the US, medicare runs with something like 5% administrative overhead… and that’s when all the toughest, highest maintenance patients get dumped on them (like, the entire senior population of the country). Private insurers are more like 15% or higher just dealing with mostly healthier younger people. So it doesn’t make much sense to be complaining about the “woefully inefficient” government handling of health insurance dollars when the private sector is doing it three times worse, does it?

I won’t pretend to have the time or resources to do a comprehensive critique of the US healthcare system. I only wanted to dispel the myths about the Canadian system (which I feel I can speak more authoritatively on) and point out that some of those same things that people are so worried about with public health care actually happen in a private system too.

With regards to new patients waiting longer in a non-emergency situation, I think that is fine. That is normal here too. When you start with a new doctor, you will usually be given an appointment to come in for a full physical and that appointment may even be a few months away. Of course, if something urgent comes up in the meantime you can see the doctor. But for a routine check-up, you may need to wait. I wasn’t objecting to that type of wait. What I was objecting to is situations where people may be turned away because they have an outstanding balance owing or otherwise cannot or are perceived to not be able to pay.

When I am trying to decide whether to buy a new DVD player, that should be a financial decision (can I afford it, is it a financial priority right now, what else would I be giving up?). But I don’t think that taking care of your health should have to be a financial decision.

I think it’s important to see the larger system at work and blame the insurance carriers and the private system of insurance rather than the individual actors. This might help you understand why doctors are tempted to do such “uncool” things.

I think we all agree reform is needed and a system to be put in place that would make such decisions unnecessary.

Lest we forget, the startup of Canada’s healthcare system was not easy, either. The movement came from a political power elected by farmers (aka population not covered by health care) and doctors, insurance companies and big businesses all fought against it (http://www.healthcoalition.ca/History.pdf). It’s hard to imagine these companies having that position today.