Don’t Forget How Good We Have It
I would just like you to ponder this situation for a minute. This was from X and the gentlemen posted:
Tore up my knee playing softball. I will need an MRI but Ontario requires I get an ultrasound first. How that’s going…
Why an ultrasound for a knee injury is beyond me but I have been retired for 5 years so maybe I am outdate.
As much as I can check this is not a bogus post. Also, I worked in Maine for 15 years and heard tons of stories of Canadians coming down for their medical issues. I also have friends with relatives in Canada who have said the same thing as the gentlemen in the story above. But I will also add this:
Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2024 Report
- In 2024, physicians across Canada reported a median wait time of 30.0 weeks between a referral from a GP and receipt of treatment. Up from 27.7 in 2023.
- This is 222% longer than the 9.3 week wait Canadian patients could expect in 1993.
- Ontario reported the shortest total wait (23.6 weeks), followed by Quebec (28.9 weeks) and British Columbia (29.5 weeks).
- Patients waited longest in Prince Edward Island (77.4 weeks), New Brunswick (69.4 weeks) and Newfoundland and Labrador (43.2 weeks).
- Patients waited the longest for Orthopaedic Surgery (57.5 weeks) and Neurosurgery (46.2 weeks).
- By contrast, patients faced shorter waits for Radiation Oncology (4.5 weeks) and Medical Oncology (4.7 weeks).
- The national 30 week total wait is comprised of two segments. Referral by a GP to consultation with a specialist: 15.0 weeks. Consultation with a specialist to receipt of treatment: 15.0 weeks.
- More than 1900 responses were received across 12 specialties and 10 provinces.
- After seeing a specialist, Canadian patients waited 6.3 weeks longer than what physicians consider to be clinically reasonable (8.6 weeks).
- Across 10 provinces, the study estimated that patients in Canada were waiting for 1.5 million procedures in 2024.
- Patients also suffered considerable delays for diagnostic technology: 8.1 weeks for CT scans, 16.2 weeks for MRI scans, and 5.2 weeks for Ultrasound.
I am dancing around the politics here because pro Canada people with scream that they have a socialized healthcare system and we don’t, giving them better access and making it cheaper.
Well, I think the story above contradicts the access part. And cheaper? Well, if you never get the diagnostic test or referral then, yeah, that’s cheaper.
That being said, the argument that we have the most expensive system is a rightful criticism. But what if it really wasn’t that expensive?
- Direct Primary Care gives incredible access and great care. That beats anything they have up north. And it’s on average around $75 a month.
- DPC docs help patients navigate the system for affordable and immediate diagnostic testing. This gives better outcomes than waiting a year for a test.
- DPC docs offer extremely affordable labs for immediate results. Win for us.
- DPC docs are patient advocates who make sure the medicine they prescribe are affordable.
- DPC docs have inspirited Direct Specialty Care doctors who again work around the system for affordable care.
Once again, if you can take the fake costs out of healthcare (insurance premiums, nontransparent billing by hospitals, etc.) you beat Canada’s system every time.
Yup. My Canadian grandmother waited years for a hip replacement, despite the fact that she was completely immobile and had a couple life-threatening GI bleeds from the oral diclofenac they kept giving her for the pain.
To make matters worse, instead of giving a frail old lady inpatient rehab, they sent her home to have a PT do a home visit once or twice a week.
She never walked again.