Notes on Canada's health care system:
1. Taxpayer-funded national insurance program, which is titled Medicare (sound familiar?)
2. The system covers all hospital and psychiatric care.
3. Private health care providers, government financing.
4. Canadians generally love the program.
5. Medicare guarantees everybody health care who needs it while maintaining better health stats than the U.S.
6. Canada's system is going bankrupt though. It hasn't been increasing its expenditures to match the rise in health care costs.
7. There is a lack of doctors due to poor compensation; Canada is also working to reduce the number of medical students because the system can't afford to pay so many doctors.
8. Service is available for all persons with acute illness, accident, and emergencies, but non-life-threatening problems may require a long wait.
9. Some people never even get to see specialists because of the long waiting lists. They either get their care elsewhere, or they just give up on the pursuit.
10. Waiting periods differ between provinces and according to your particular needs.
11. Reports of Canadians fleeing to the U.S. for medical care aren't backed up by statistical research. The actual number of such cases is tiny.
12. Those whose urgently need care will get it, but those who can wait must wait, and they seem to do it without much complaint.
13. Each province has its own Medicare plan, so Canada's system isn't a single-payer system. Some provinces require co-payments, others cover 100% of the cost. However, the system works like single-payer system since the federal government provides most of the funding and sets regulations for the provinces (Canada Health Act of 1984). Rules laid out in the Act are, for the most part, simply advised, but if provinces don't follow the rules, they forfeit their ability to receive government subsidies, which no province can afford. So, the rules are effectively laws.
14. The basic principles of the Act are: a) administration must be done on a non-profit basis; b) each plan must pay for all "medically necessary" treatments; c) every resident within a province must have equal access to health care services; d) the plan must pay for services received anywhere in the country and often in foreign countries as well; e) patients must be charged the same fee, regardless of age or illness
15. Most Canadians pay nothing when they visit their doctor, nothing for screenings or tests, and nothing for vaccinations. Preventive dental care isn't covered, but dental surgery is covered when performed in a hospital. Ambulance services are covered in most provinces. Mental health care is largely covered, but expect a very long waiting list.
16. Prescription drugs are much cheaper in Canada, but they aren't covered at all by insurance, except for the poor, senior citizens, and chronically ill persons, except for "lifestyle" drugs such as Viagra.
17. Two-thirds of Canadians have private, supplemental insurance to cover thing that aren't covered by Medicare (e.g. dental, private hospital rooms, prescription drugs, etc.)
18. Private insurance won't, however, shorten your waiting time.
19. Since Medicare covers all of the expensive stuff in Canada, private insurance is very cheap.
20. To avoid a flight from Medicare, it's illegal for patients or private plans to pay for any medical service covered by Medicare.
21. A physician must choose to be accept Medicare or provide private services - they can't do both.
22. The problem with this model is that there is no way to get around waiting lists, even if you would pay dearly for otherwise Medicare-covered services.
23. To respond, there is increasing pressure on the Canadian government to spend more money on health care and to train more doctors.
24. Physicians are paid must less than American doctors.
25. All patient records are digital.
26. Medical schools cost about half the price of American med schools.
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