What infuriates me is that someone (I suspect insurance industry lobbyists) has successfully conflated the two completely separate notions of "single-payer universal health insurance" and "government-run health care" in the public mind. They then use the occasional scare reports of the horrible! awful! state of Canadian health care to say "See? See? Look how terrible things are when the government runs health care!"
(Rant ahead. Sorry.)
Hi, my name is ELL, and I'm a Canadian. Two of my doctors are self-employed -- one works out of a small clinic that offers many different services in a one-stop shop, and one is a solo practitioner. When I visit them, I hand over my health card, and later their offices bill the government for services rendered to me. A third works in a hospital and I assume she is a salaried employee, although I don't know that for a fact. When I visit her, I hand over my health card and my hospital card, and I don't get a bill. I work for another hospital, which is a not-for-profit company that receives funding through a block grant from the government and also through donations and research grants. When patients visit us, they hand over their health cards and their hospital cards, and they don't get a bill (exceptions are if they don't have coverage because they aren't Canadian residents, or presumably if they receive services that aren't covered). Six years ago, I was hospitalized twice, each time for about a four-day stay. Never saw a bill, never had to worry about how I was going to pay for all this. I like that about our system.
Like other individual and corporate health care providers in Canada, all of them are free (within certain parameters) to organize their services in the way that they think will best serve their patients. They are funded by my taxes, but they are not government employees, and frankly I'm more than a little sick of this notion that everything that's wrong with Canadian health care is due to our funding system.
Oh, I agree with your rant. In fact, pointing out that no-one in this system is a government employee is probably the best part of it.
Also, isn't it funny that no one ever talks about the advantages of getting rid of the massive middle-management class in health care?
And (Also also!) the thing that really gets my goat is, when people complain that "In Canada, you have to wait six weeks for an MRI!" Guess what, idiot, so many more people need the basic health care that they're not getting than people who need an MRI, that I'd gladly trade availability and non-scarcity of exotic health and diagnostic treatments and visits for more basic health care! It's a false choice, but if I have to make it ...
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electricland) wrote2007-03-05 10:10 am
no subject
(Rant ahead. Sorry.)
Hi, my name is ELL, and I'm a Canadian. Two of my doctors are self-employed -- one works out of a small clinic that offers many different services in a one-stop shop, and one is a solo practitioner. When I visit them, I hand over my health card, and later their offices bill the government for services rendered to me. A third works in a hospital and I assume she is a salaried employee, although I don't know that for a fact. When I visit her, I hand over my health card and my hospital card, and I don't get a bill. I work for another hospital, which is a not-for-profit company that receives funding through a block grant from the government and also through donations and research grants. When patients visit us, they hand over their health cards and their hospital cards, and they don't get a bill (exceptions are if they don't have coverage because they aren't Canadian residents, or presumably if they receive services that aren't covered). Six years ago, I was hospitalized twice, each time for about a four-day stay. Never saw a bill, never had to worry about how I was going to pay for all this. I like that about our system.
Like other individual and corporate health care providers in Canada, all of them are free (within certain parameters) to organize their services in the way that they think will best serve their patients. They are funded by my taxes, but they are not government employees, and frankly I'm more than a little sick of this notion that everything that's wrong with Canadian health care is due to our funding system.
/rant
no subject
Also, isn't it funny that no one ever talks about the advantages of getting rid of the massive middle-management class in health care?
And (Also also!) the thing that really gets my goat is, when people complain that "In Canada, you have to wait six weeks for an MRI!" Guess what, idiot, so many more people need the basic health care that they're not getting than people who need an MRI, that I'd gladly trade availability and non-scarcity of exotic health and diagnostic treatments and visits for more basic health care! It's a false choice, but if I have to make it ...