As lawmakers put on an extended match of political football with the American healthcare system, many have pointed to Canada as a shining example of how things should be done.

Canada uses a socialized healthcare system based around a single-payer, an idea that has recently gained momentum with left-leaning Americans. However, that doesn’t make Canada’s system perfect.

It takes someone with an intricate knowledge of healthcare, in general, to break down the real similarities and differences in the two current systems. So, what are American doctors who’ve been to Canada saying?

A fundamental difference

One critical difference in the way that we approach the subject of healthcare shapes the entire discussion around US vs. social medicine in any country. That is, in countries with socialized healthcare, healthcare is considered a right.

Think about that for a moment. It means that as Americans we’re consciously allowing our fellowcitizens to get sick and even die without treatment if they can’t afford it. Gun ownership is a right, and health care is not — it’s that simple.

Countries that make healthcare a right — like Canada — do so at a small cost to the people who live there. It is doable, and American doctors who have worked in Canada are coming forward now to share what they have observed and how the two nations could learn from one another.

A simpler approach

In the states, we believe in the free market. That has introduced a whole cavalcade of moving parts into our healthcare system that simply don’t exist in most socialized systems.

Take big pharma. With the multitudes of drugs available on the market and pressure on physicians to promote them, patients in America are at a higher risk of pharmaceutical fraud than they realize. For example, big-name company Johnson & Johnson has seen a multitude of scandals and lawsuits related to their products over the years.

They have so much money and power that they continue to get away with this and operate even after so many blows that one would think would crush a company. It’s hard to know exactly what they’ve gotten away with. One case resulted in as high as an $800 million settlement for J & J’s off-market marketing of one of its drugs, emphasizing the importance of seeking legal help if you think you’ve fallen victim to big pharma’s game.

However, the responsibility should not be on the average consumer. The responsibility of a government is supposed to be to do what’s in the best interest of the people. The US government’s current ties to big pharma are not helping accomplish this. In a socialized system where doctors receive the same pay regardless of how they promote medications, the risk of fraud and corruption is greatly reduced.

One size fits all

There are, however, drawbacks to the socialized model as well. Two American physicians who have practiced in Canada both cite the lack of access to advanced medical technologies such as MRIs, which can leave patients waiting for weeks to diagnose a problem.

To quote Dr. Peter Cram, “In Canada, everyone gets Kmart care, there’s no Neiman Marcus care.”

Wealthy Americans who are used to a higher standard of care see that as a problem. They don’t want to wait in lobbies with poor people and expect higher quality appointments and better food. You can’t have those perks in Canada. It’s a sacrifice to make, but while conservative Americans point to a tax hike being required to fund such a program, the result is much lower overall medical costs.

Doctor-approved

The reason is that the American system commoditizes medical procedures. Doctors charge much higher fees and work much longer hours in the United States. It’s true that they make more money in some cases — but not all.

Dr. Suneel Dhand, an American doctor with experience working in Canada, asked a fellow doctor with similar experience to share some thoughts about the conditions he worked in during his time up north.

He reported that the first thing he noticed was how happy the doctors in Canada are, citing that they were “far from burnout,” a condition that often affects US doctors hustling to stay prosperous with falling healthcare compensation from insurers.

“Everyone valued everyone’s input,” the article goes on. “I found no backstabbing or backbiting. And the group did well incorporating other locum tenens, residents, and students.” Is it worth it to you to have a doctor who’s feeling good and communicates with their co-workers operating when you go under the knife?

Even with all the places that socialized care shines, it isn’t perfect and neither Dhand nor Cram glosses over that. There are certain things you just can’t have in Canada that top-tier US healthcare provides.

Canada’s healthcare system only covers doctor visits and medical costs. Other costs covered by US insurers, like optical and dental care and prescription medication, require a secondary policy that most Canadians choose to buy — but it’s not mandatory.

The cost to provinces is extremely high. It can constitute up to 40% of their budget. Can you imagine states absorbing so many medical costs? Not likely.

America at a crossroads

Still, we have an inefficient system in the states, and it’s having an impact in multiple ways. Medical fees are inflated, making it difficult for those with insurance to pay for care, and the less fortunate can’t afford care at all. How bad do you want to see things change? I guess that depends on how likely you are to wind up broke tomorrow.

But what if there were decisions you could make that could be guaranteed to have a positive impact on the trajectory of your life?

Well, it would be a lie. Nobody can make such claims. But what I can tell you is that admitting to your personal problems could be one of those decisions. It might not feel like it, and you might not really know right away, but I can personally guarantee that you’ll feel as though a weight has been lifted, and even more importantly, you’ll feel as though you’ve taken control of your life. I can imagine few things in life more rewarding than feeling a degree of balance and control return to your life.

So what kind of stand am I talking about making? Let’s start with the most obvious. The 2012 edition of the Treatment Episode Data Set indicates that some 1.5 million teenagers in America could be considered to have a substance dependency. Just over half of them – about 51.2% – had been referred to some kind of alcohol or drug treatment program by a court.

The thing is, I’m not just talking about chemical dependencies here, although that’s obviously the most well-known sort of addiction. Here are a few others: There’s every reason to think that certain types of video games can be addictive. Sex and porn can be addictive. Even relationships – particularly unhealthy ones – can be addictive.

In case you think I’m speaking hypothetically here, you should know that some of the men in my family have struggled with alcoholism over the years. Too many of them spent too many joyless days by themselves after their closest family members couldn’t be around them any longer. They think of the lost time, lost money, squandered ambition, and missed opportunities over the years, and the regret is sometimes enough to overshadow even the satisfaction of having made a change.

But they did change. Others might make their own personal admission of weakness long before they did, and good on them.

Life is full of temptations. I won’t tell you for a moment that some of them aren’t worth pursuing – responsibly, in moderation, or in the right company – but a great many more will turn your world upside-down and inside-out.

Furthermore, I won’t tell you that there’s an orderly and clearly delineated multi-step program that works for everybody. The Church-sanctioned 12 step program is a great place to start, but like all matters of faith, how you interpret its teachings and put them into action are wholly and decidedly yours.

Know, too, that self-deception is not one of the 12 Steps.

I’m not going to drag this on for much longer. What I’ll leave you with is this: if there was something tugging at your conscience while you read this article, know that it’s probably time to address it. Doing so might be the start of a painful road toward recovery, but the feeling of relief will be an immediate and lasting reward.

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They’re talking about the Canadian health care system all day long on the radio down here in the United States.

frex: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111084018

I’m hearing great anecdotes, like that one reason Canada works is that it has fewer people than California, and that someone couldn’t get health insurance in California because her injuries treated for free in Canada (hit by a car while she was on her bicycle) were considered a pre-existing condition in the States.

And I find, I’m really no closer to understanding what the Canadian health care system is really like. On one hand, I’m hearing a lot of stories about waiting four months to see a primary care physician, and long waits to have one’s cancer treated, hospital beds in halls, or 19th-century style 20 beds to a room. On the other hand, I’m hearing about the peace of mind of being able to see a doctor whether you’ve changed jobs, to get health care whether or not you have a pre-existing condition. I’m hearing it’s easier to start a business if healthcare is not one of the overheads.

I had a baby when my husband was between jobs. We lost our COBRA coverage though a paperwork error, and then I couldn’t be insured because I was pregnant. Pretty big consequence for paperwork. So I’ve had a baby on a cash basis, knowing I had no way to cover the expenses if my child was born with any complications. I don’t think I really got what it was like to be uninsured until it happened to me. I don’t think I understood the difficulty of getting insurance once you’re in that class of uninsured. And I thought the health insurance paperwork was bad enough when I was family-of-an-employee.

So, you LDS Canadian insiders, what is it really like getting health care in Canada?

Do you have to be clever at navigating bureaucracy to get care? To see a doctor you respect? It’s not atypical here to have to fight the paperwork fight when your insurance decides something wasn’t covered. What’s the analogy there?

And does the Canadian system have challenges when you’re LDS?

Do they give you a hard time about having lots of children? (Actually, that’s happened to me in California.) Do you worry about resources going to abortions? Is care being withheld from the elderly?