In 2014, 53,513 Canadians got healthcare in the USA. That’s half the city of Thunder Bay, or all of Cornwall, heading south to get better access to care.
Please read the original article, Leaving Canada for Medical Care, from The Fraser Institute as well as media from CBC, Global News and The National Post. The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star haven’t commented yet.
Canada must ration healthcare. With first dollar coverage, Medicare cannot ration by cost, so it must ration access to care by limiting services with wait times. When waits become intolerable, suffering forces patients to purchase care outside Canada.
Paying privately for medical care is illegal in Ontario yet 26,252 patients went to the United States to purchase care last year. In light of this, should we:
- Refuse to provide follow-up care for treatments rendered in the USA?
- Set up American clinics on Canadian soil so we can tax the services?
- Revamp the Canada Health Act?
- Close the border?
Denialism
Many argue that Canadians do not go south for care:
- 5 myths about Canada’s healthcare system
- Phantoms in the Snow
- “Myth of Canadians Going to USA for Healthcare”Google Search
Who’s right? Most physicians know of at least 1 patient who had to go to the USA for care. There are 75,000 physicians in Canada. Even if multiple doctors know about the same patient, it seems to make sense that thousands of Canadians head south for care.
A rose by any other name…
Those with the power to change the system do not tolerate waits. They get care in the USA or purchase routine services at executive medical clinics in big cities.
People talk about Medicare and Canadian identity. Perhaps our Canadian Medicare legacy has tarnished a little? Maybe we should start talking about how to help patients suffering on wait lists? Maybe we should start figuring out ways to provide access to the multi-tier care that already exists in Canada?
photo credit: cbc.ca
shawn….you’re very fast off the mark. Under the “should we” I would support non of those solutions. This is clearly the result of those who can afford self pay for care do just that….all because our failing system has let them suffer.
Let’s start with closing border to any politician or influential bureaucrate and their families seeking to bypass que by going OOC for self pay care. Also, stop them using influence to go to head of line at hospital and with docs.
Then they just might, but not likely, get to work with ALL stakeholders to completely change or modify system.
Should we provide the after care here in Canada, yes we should. Look at the $$ saved by not performing a hip replacement, just the rehab. It’s not as if we’re taking $ out of docs pocket, they appear to be as busy as hospitals and govt allows. Our quality of life even though we pay out of pocket is a decision we make, not govt. They can’t manage the system now, this OOC care is their creation.
Until they get their collective act together every Canadian that can, will take their care into their own hands.
Thanks Don, so are you!
If those who can currently get access to care in the USA were denied somehow (e.g., Canada was an island), we’d see radical change. This issue irks the ideologues. I’m looking forward to what the Star reports on it…if anything.
Thanks so much for reading and commenting. Always excellent!
Cheers
Shawn