“Single-payer” Health Care Requires Evermore Patient Patients
By Mary Theroux • Saturday January 28, 2012 4:42 PM PDT • 9 Comments
Those hoping ObamaCare will soon lead to a “Single-payer” plan such as Canada’s might want to look through the most recent annual report on wait times for health care in Canada just released by the Fraser Institute.
Among other findings in “Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2011 Report:”
Specialist physicians surveyed across 12 specialties and 10 Canadian provinces report a total waiting time of 19.0 weeks between referral from a general practitioner and elective treatment in 2011—the longest total wait time recorded since the Fraser Institute began measuring wait times in 1993.
The definition of “elective” goes far beyond plastic surgery, referring to procedures few of us would willingly “elect,” including Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Internal Medicine, Urology, Elective Cardiovascular Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Neurosurgery, General Surgery, Otolaryngology, Ophthalmology, and Gynecology. You’ll be relieved to know that patients must wait “only” an average 1.2 weeks for urgent cardiovascular surgery.
There’s also some question of the quality of care available in Canada, even if one can wait, as evidenced by the well-publicized choice of a Canadian Premier to have his heart surgery in the U.S. last year.
Tests we now undergo virtually on demand will likely also become a longed-for dream as we suffer and wait for diagnoses. A friend whose medical condition puzzles her doctors recently underwent a series of three ultrasounds on same-day bases; and an MRI on her choice of several days after calling for an appointment. In British Columbia, the Canadian province most like California, she would have waited 4 weeks for an ultrasound (presumably waiting 4 additional weeks for each of the follow-ups); and 16 weeks for the MRI.
No one denies that the U.S. healthcare system is badly broken, beginning with the introduction of employer-provided (3rd-party payer) health insurance as a work-around to World War II wage and price controls, and ever-higher premiums correlating with ever-expanding government involvement in the sector—evidence that would seem to call for less government involvement, not more.
We “baby boomers,” now entering the age at which we can anticipate needing increasing amounts of health care, yet unfortunately spoiled by lifelong experience with “on demand” access to health care, will likely find it especially trying to accept a Brave New World in which we, unlike our parents, are not immediately booked into life-saving or ameliorative surgery. Will we consequently overthrow the tyranny of healthcare as “Made in D.C.,” or quietly acquiesce to the drumbeat propaganda that increased wait times and death rates are the price for “fairness”?
Tags: California, Canada, Healthcare, Insurance, Personal Liberty, Price control, Progressivism, Propaganda, Regulation 
I guarantee that if America becomes a “single payer” socialist system of medical care, the politicians and elites that brought us this system will not wait one more minute than necessary for their medical care. Most of the “do as I say not as I do” limousine liberals will have one set of health care for them and another set of health care for the other 98% of the population. The problem arises because a majority of American voters think that they are entitled to something for nothing. And once they vote to get that something for nothing they think that the system will remain as it was. But soon,this majority of voters will realize what they once took for granted is now rationed. And they will have to wait and wait and wait. And with some of these voters the State will just wait till they die.
Libertarian Jerry | Jan 29, 2012 | Reply
So, are we saying that we don’t already experience excessive wait times? Try finding a specialist in Michigan and one often encounters a several month-long wait-list. No, wait times are already endemic in America. Further, we have to remember that Canadians LIKE their system...As do the Brits, the French and the Germans. As a matter of fact, when folks overseas clamor for healthcare reform, the politicians always say, “Well, we could always try the American way...” Guess what? The griping stops.
Cean Worcestor | Jan 30, 2012 | Reply
Cean Worcestor....The Canadians LIKE their system so much that whenever they have a serious medical situation that has to be taken care of promptly they come over the border to the United States and have the procedure done in America.
Libertarian Jerry | Jan 31, 2012 | Reply
Part of the reason US health care is so expensive is due to so much “government” (state and federal) involvement in health care. The more “government” there is, the more things cost. The solution is to move things in the opposite direction. Eliminate prescription laws, drug laws in general as Ron Paul wishes to do. This means that physicians no longer have monopoly control over the supply of medicine. You are in control of your health. You decide when it is necessary to see a doctor. You are the one making the decisions. You are free to purchase medicine from wherever you wish. Government no longer has any “say” over what medicines you buy, take. The same thing would apply throughout the rest of the health care system. Ever notice that those parts of medicine that don’t involve insurance companies or the government like Lasik are getting cheaper with time? While every other part of the health care system is getting more expensive with time? The answer is obviously not more government involvement, but less!
Jerome Bigge | Jan 31, 2012 | Reply
Thank you, Jerome:
You all might also be interested in our website devoted to the FDA, FDAReview.org. It contains a great deal of peer-reviewed studies exposing how government involvement in health care and drug approval not only increases our costs exponentially, but also results in the unnecessary deaths of thousands each year.
Best wishes,
Mary
Mary Theroux | Jan 31, 2012 | Reply
Several years ago, I had the privilege of living in Uruguay, SA for several months. I had never heard of Gov’t funded care until a new friend was told that she needed to go to the hospital. I will never forget the look of horror and fear on her face...some fellow Americans explained to me that many people that went into the Gov’t hospitals never come out, or came out much worse, because of the horrible ‘care’ they got there. But, for the poor, there was no other choice... Socialized medicine Always ends up that way....
Sharon Smith | Feb 1, 2012 | Reply
If anyone wants to see what socialied healthcare looks like here in the US, you have only to look at the VA. Some places, some services are good, even excellent, but others..not so. In my case, ENT specialists: only see you upon referral from your primary care Dr., who doesn’t recognize you have a serious issue, and wastes six weeks on antihistimines first. When you get there they tell you, if we’d seen you earlier we could have.... Then, every time you go back (which cost an entire day and 250 miles round trip), you see a different “Dr.”, in reality, a resident on a 12 week cycle using Vet’s as learning tools. They follow the leader (accepting whatever someone else already said, because they don’t have a clue what’s wrong with you), treat you like a number, record things wrong, have no patience when you try to correct them, reverse one another too.... I have a reconstructed eardrum because of their internal communications problems, their rigid schedule, and a host of issues including the above.
Doug Enyart | Feb 1, 2012 | Reply
If what some of these bloggers say is so true, then why are so many Canadians coming across the border to my US hospital in Michigan for urgent procedures, many life vs. death within a few days to weeks? Don’t just take a lifelong socialist’s word! They were born raised and steeped in THEIR economic tradition – certainly not one shared by the U.S.
And by the way, when people are screaming at the top of their lungs about ANY LITTLE tax increase...it comes to mind that folks oughta find out ACCURATELY how much that health care costs those people in taxes. They RARELY remain on the subject when asked – I know because I ask often. Find out for yourself before you go blabbing the “virtues” of govt run medicine. If they ran your cath lab like AMTRAK you wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance...
Michigander | Feb 1, 2012 | Reply
An interesting footnote, adding to Doug’s comment, is that academic studies comparing wait times across countries specify “Non-V.A. U.S. healthcare” when measuring average wait times in the U.S.—explicitly inditing the V.A. system as outside the average American’s healthcare experience.
“Honor the troops,” indeed! Apparently, the feds don’t.
Mary L. G. Theroux | Feb 2, 2012 | Reply