Davin News Server

Mike Duffy wrote:
> On 2024-10-11, Dave Smith wrote:
> 
>> I know that we are paying for it with our taxes but the difference
>> in taxes would not cove most people's medical insurance and there
>> are no deductions or deductibles.
> 
> What may not be obvious in the US system is the *HUGE* hidden cost
> of accounting built-in to commercial health insurance.


https://everythingzoomer.com/health/2018/02/10/canada-ranks-lowest-health-care-satisfaction/

A new study finds that 67 percent of Canadians, 65 and over, are 
satisfied with the quality of their health care. That also also means 
more than a quarter of us are officially unsatisfied.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) reported that among 
10 other countries (Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New 
Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United 
States), we ranked least satisfied.

The 2017 edition of The Commonwealth Fund’s annual International Health 
Policy Survey reported a 76 per cent average satisfaction rating, with 
the Swiss topping out at 84 per cent. Little surprise, Switzerland’s 
high overall health rating was among the reasons it made No. 3 on the 
UN’s best countries to live list in 2017. (Canada came in at 10th best, 
incidentally, with education achievement being our distinction.)

As for the issues that may have cost us that 33 per cent on the Health 
Policy Survey, here are some of the findings:

3 out of 5 Canadians reported waiting at least four weeks to see a 
specialist – highest among the 11 countries surveyed

12 per cent said test results were unavailable at follow-up 
appointments, and 11 per cent had received conflicting information from 
different health care providers

One quarter of respondents did not have someone review the purpose of 
each of their medications

1 out of 5 did not receive written information on what to do after 
hospital discharge or did not have follow-up care arranged

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/blogs/survey-reveals-canadian-health-care-concerns

Canada has one of the most expensive universal health-care systems in 
the world. In 2016, on an age-adjusted basis, Canada ranked fourth 
highest for health-care expenditure as a percentage of GDP and 10th 
highest for health-care expenditure per capita. Further, health care is 
the single largest budget item in every province. Of course, high levels 
of spending are not necessarily a bad thing if they are accompanied by 
commensurate results. Unfortunately for Canadians, that simply isn’t true.

For example, in 2016 Canada had the second-lowest 
physician-to-population ratio (ranking 26th out of 28), fewer MRI and CT 
scanners than the average (rank 22 and 21 out of 27, respectively) and 
the second-lowest number of beds per thousand (ranking 25 out of 26).

Things look even worse when we examine wait times data. Of the 10 
countries with available data, Canada ranked worst (10th out of 10) for 
the percentage of patients who reported waiting two months or more for a 
specialist appointment, and worst (10th out of 10) for the percentage of 
patients who reported waiting four months or more for elective surgery.

Finally, the majority of survey respondents reported worrying a lot 
about long wait times (62 per cent), the shortage of health 
professionals (60 per cent) and crowded hospitals (59 per cent).
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