Sociology of Medicine and Health Lecture 26

Canada Overview Has a national health insurance since 1971 Covers all citizens with no limits Rationing is different, In the US health care is rations no insurance no health care Canada rationing tertiary care, the more expensive treatments like surgery therefore there are long waiting lists. Ie. ? open heart surgery They provide more primary and secondary care They spend less on medical care than they used to However, but always in financial crisis and most citizens love their plan even with they problems Provincial insurance coverage Group of patients that negotiate for the better care and determine the budget for the hospital in each province every year Therefore hospitals have a cap or limit on how much they can spend each year They also negotiate with physicians to negotiate payment Myths about the Canadian health care system National health insurance leads to more bureaucratic red-tape and higher administrative costs Actually the cost is less US is about 6 times higher than Canada NHI interferes with doctor-patient relationship Patients have no restrictions on choosing their physicians Can get care in any provinces They do not need to get permission to go to a doctor NHI leads to long waits for treatment Partially true, they have to wait for tertiary care, but not primary or secondary If your life is in danger they will take you right away NHI lowers quality of medical care Life span, Canadians live longer NHI leads to rationing True, they ration health care, but Americans also do it too and every country Doctors make most of the decisions on who gets treatment, unlike the USA where someone who is not a doctor makes the decisions NHI causes exodus of physicians Physician is cap ? they don?t make as much money But Canadian physicians haven?t moved to the United States to make more money Canadian vs. USA