Oy Canada: Doc's Bailing, NICU's Missing

Even as we rush towards a similar model, it may be instructive to see how well nationalized health care's actually working out for our Neighbors to the North©. While in Chicago earlier this week (for our daughter's college orientation), my wife and I overheard a Quebecois gentleman, in the Windy City on business, telling his associates about health care, Canadian style. I was able to take some notes, which I'll share with you.

When asked about Canadian health care, he responded "when you can get it, it's pretty good." He went on to say that "if you can afford it, the best doctors are available." I didn't quite understand this at the time, since Canadian health care is, after all, "free." As you'll see in a moment, this isn't really true.

He followed up by observing that you "take what you get;" again leaving me puzzled: haven't we been told, ad nauseum, that health care is readily available Up North? And again, I later learned the bitter truth.

In his very next breath, he admitted that "care in Canada is not as good as what you get in the US." I should point out that he said he was from a city "100 kilometers from Quebec."

So what, exactly, is the truth here? Is he simply a dissatisfied Canuck, or does his opinion reflect reality?

You be the judge.

Is quality health care truly available in Canada? Well, it depends on where in Canada you live. The gummint-run health system is administered at the provincial level (as ours is regulated, for the most part, at the state level), so quality and accessibility of care can vary greatly. While critics of our system point to Canada as a role model, perhaps the tragedy of little Ava Stinson can serve as a useful rebuttal:

"A critically-ill premature-born baby from Hamilton is all alone in a Buffalo, N.Y., hospital after she was turned away for treatment at local facility and transferred across the border without her parents, who don’t have passports."

Turns out, there were no (as in: zero, nada, zilch) Neonatal Intensive Care Units available in the whole of Quebec.

Not. A. One.

So of course, they headed south (as have so many others before them), in order to save their baby's life. Thankfully, medics at Buffalo's (mmm, wings!) St. Joseph's Hospital will apparently be able to help, thanks to American medical technology and care. In fact, a (very) quick Google search revealed four NICU facilities in Buffalo alone.

Would it be presumptuous to ask the national health care proponents why they hate Canadians?

But certainly good quality care is available to all?

Not so much:

"Private for-profit clinics are a booming business in Canada ... Facing long waits and substandard care, private clinics are proving that Canadians are willing to pay for treatment."

As we've repeatedly pointed out, one of the problems with our own national health care system, aka Medicare, is that there are a lot of doc's who shun MC patients, and the concomitant reduced reimbursement rates. Looks like that particular virus has spread North; more and more Canadian physicians are opting out of the government-run system and (back?) into private pay, private practice. That was apparently what our Quebecois businessman meant.

Does this all sound familiar?

It should: the Canadian government does, indeed, spend less on health care for its citizens, proving the old adage about getting what one pays for.