A Minnesotan Reports on the Canadian National Health Experience

by L.A.S.

When Minnesotan Bob McIntosh moved to Victoria, British Columbia, two years ago, he expected long waits for medical attention. But to his surprise, he was shown to a doctor's office after only 20 minutes in the waiting room of a local walk-in clinic.

Service was not only fast but friendly. The building is less imposing than most facilities in the U.S., and clinic rooms might be described as spartan. Yet patients can depend on everything that counts where medical services are concerned, and so it merits serious consideration as a basis for an American plan.

Contrary to what most sources would have you believe, the coverage is not exactly free and excludes some allied health services.
Mr. McIntosh reports that Canadians there pay a monthly premium of just $100. That premium is waived for those who cannot afford it. The national health plan, called Medicare, does include clinic visits, annual checkups, and most lab work. Not covered are a PSA test ($30), eyeglasses, dental care, acupuncture, physiotherapy, massage, chiropractic, non-surgical podiatry, and the like.

The Medicare program is administered by the provinces. That means if a resident of British Columbia travels to another province or country, he needs supplemental insurance. McIntosh found such a plan for another $88 a month, but many people get such coverage provided by their employers.

Why can't the powers-that-be in this country accept the irresistible logic of a national healthcare plan? Perhaps they like seeing huge, luxurious hospital wings with their names on a plaque up front. And they like even better the large inflow of money each month from insurance policyholders and annual bonuses for denying medical care to those who need it.

Canadian Drug Prices Up Too -- by Almost 16 Per Cent

by L.A.S.

If you've been idealizing the Canadian health care system because it appears to work while keeping costs under control -- that may be. But the fact remains that overall medical care costs (that is, everything except medications) rose 13 percent in 2008 and just over 14 percent in 2009. And prescription prices rose 15.9 percent so far in 2009.

Canadians are feeling squeezed by the recession just as much as we are. Nervous Canadians are taking advantage of their healthcare benefits, and paying more attention to wellness issues. Among employers, wellness programs are gaining support as a way to control costs while reducing absenteeism and increasing productivity.

How Would Your Life Be Different if We Had National Healthcare?

A provocative article ran recently in the pages of AlterNet regarding the writer's experience living in Canada for a while. Her five years in Canada were a real eye-opener in how a healthcare system could work, sparing people the economic drain of continual insurance and medical bills.

She wrote:

This was one of the things that struck me hardest when I arrived in Canada five years ago. The swamp-blindness was so dark and deep that it took a while to adjust to a world without alligators. It's almost impossible to describe to folks back home how different life is when health insurance simply doesn't factor at all into how you choose to live your life. There's almost no language for it. Rather than even attempt it, I sometimes just ask my American friends and relatives to open up their imaginations, and answer the question for themselves:

* How would your life be different if you never had to worry about getting, keeping, or affording health care again?
* What other choices might you have made?
* Where else would you be right now?
* How would it change your plans for the future?

You can read the whole article here at http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/140918/what_did_you_sacrifice_to_afford_health_care_/?page=entire -- AlterNet is a wonderful website with many such interesting and provocative articles. I hope you like it.