Fixed for a generation?
Saw an article in the Post this morning which captures the state of Canadian health care in a nutshell – confusion reigns! Apparently there was a poll (surprise, surprise, in the land of government by public opinion poll) which showed that there is some level of confusion regarding the perception of the Canadian health care system versus the reality. Apparently, since the politicians keep telling us that we have the bestest health care system ™ in the world, and that the solution to all that ails us is to throw more public money in, we, well, believe them.
The reality is slightly different. Seems that when polled, Canadians consistently rated our healthcare system far above its actual world ranking for a number of measurable outcomes or characteristics. We actually ranked quite poorly in some of these areas, yet the perception reflected in the poll was that we were doing quite well when stacked up against the rest of the developed world.
If anything, this poll (and the reality) shows that what we need in this country is more open and honest debate about health care, and less useless rhetoric. Politicians always reach for the lowest common denominator in any type of health care debate, wrapping themselves in the flag and solemnly vowing to protect us from the scourge of two tier medicine. I, for one, would like to hear less of this and more real discussion – discussion and debate that includes all the options available to alleviate the crisis conditions in the system, not just more stale rhetoric about throwing another $20 or 30 or 40 billion into the hole and calling that a fix. And yes, that open and honest debate has to include exploration of private care and how it can be utilized to relieve pressure on the public system and provide a much needed injection of cash (forgotten, it seems, in all the rhetoric, is the fact that publicly funded private delivery is one of the cornerstones of our system – since every doctor is not a government employee, and who do you think pays to set up their offices & clinics??? Um, that’s right, they do…).
The sooner the politicos realize that all their rhetorical flourishes and windy speechifying about “public” health care do more harm than good, the sooner we can start putting the health care system in Canada back on its feet – and who knows, if we inject some intelligent discussion and debate, and then act rationally on it, reality may just catch up with our perceptions.
Wouldn’t that be something?
The reality is slightly different. Seems that when polled, Canadians consistently rated our healthcare system far above its actual world ranking for a number of measurable outcomes or characteristics. We actually ranked quite poorly in some of these areas, yet the perception reflected in the poll was that we were doing quite well when stacked up against the rest of the developed world.
If anything, this poll (and the reality) shows that what we need in this country is more open and honest debate about health care, and less useless rhetoric. Politicians always reach for the lowest common denominator in any type of health care debate, wrapping themselves in the flag and solemnly vowing to protect us from the scourge of two tier medicine. I, for one, would like to hear less of this and more real discussion – discussion and debate that includes all the options available to alleviate the crisis conditions in the system, not just more stale rhetoric about throwing another $20 or 30 or 40 billion into the hole and calling that a fix. And yes, that open and honest debate has to include exploration of private care and how it can be utilized to relieve pressure on the public system and provide a much needed injection of cash (forgotten, it seems, in all the rhetoric, is the fact that publicly funded private delivery is one of the cornerstones of our system – since every doctor is not a government employee, and who do you think pays to set up their offices & clinics??? Um, that’s right, they do…).
The sooner the politicos realize that all their rhetorical flourishes and windy speechifying about “public” health care do more harm than good, the sooner we can start putting the health care system in Canada back on its feet – and who knows, if we inject some intelligent discussion and debate, and then act rationally on it, reality may just catch up with our perceptions.
Wouldn’t that be something?
posted by Steve at
5:21 PM
1 Comments:
Great blog I hope we can work to build a better health care system as we are in a major crisis and health insurance is a major aspect to many.
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Anonymous, at 10:36 PM
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