Last August, Chris Walcroft, a 50-year old Canadian father of two, was told that he would be dead within a year without dialysis, according to reporting from CTV News. His kidneys were failing. His doctor scheduled a surgery for mid-March to implant a fistula, which is necessary for dialysis. Modern medical technology would afford Walcroft a chance to see his kids graduate from high school.
Then the pandemic came. The Canadian government mandated across-the-board delays of "elective" surgeries to shore up personnel and resources for Covid-19 patients. Walcroft's kidney surgery qualified as "elective" and was cancelled.
In April, he died of kidney failure. His family suffered a devastating, and entirely preventable, catastrophe. This is a glimpse into the ugly reality of single-payer health care.
-Sally Pipes 
As a former Canadian, I have witnessed the evils of government-controlled healthcare. I saw the Canadian bureaucrats deny my father-in-law a drug needed to prevent him from bleeding to death after surgery.
While they acknowledged he would die overnight without the drug, the government office that approved these expenses wouldn’t open until 9:00 am the next day.
We begged the hospital to charge us directly but they said it was illegal because it wouldn’t be fair to people that couldn’t afford to buy it. I have made it my mission to stop this from ever happening in this great country that has warmly adopted me.
-Jack Biltis
Despite historically high levels of funding, both in total and as a percentage of the economy, “it is clear that patients in Canada continue to wait too long to receive medically necessary treatment.”
-Sofía Ramírez Fionda
Financial, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare
As Canadians, we often like to boast about our free healthcare system. After all, it's one of the things that distinguishes us from our American cousins. But, as a new report by the Fraser Institute points out, public healthcare insurance is far from free. According to the 'The Price of Public Health Care Insurance: 2012 Edition,' released Thursday, the average Canadian family of four now pays approximately $11,400 in taxes for health care insurance. That's a jump of over 59.8 per cent (before inflation) from 2002.
Socialism, Healthcare
Lee said her 41-year-old daughter, Marlene Stephens, died Saturday after waiting nearly 90 minutes at the William Osler Health Centre’s Etobicoke campus emergency room with breathing problems.
Lee feels her daughter was not seen fast enough by medical staff.
“They didn’t touch her,” said the grieving Lee. “She was crying out, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe’. . . Nobody attended to my daughter.”
“This should not be happening in Canada,” Lee told the Star on Monday.
Socialism, Healthcare
Timely Medical Alternatives Inc. offers private medical services like MRI, Ultrasound, CT scans, CAT scans through private medical clinics, & public and private hospitals.
Take Off From the Great White North.
"A Canadian study released Wednesday found that many provinces in our neighbor to the North have seen patients fleeing the country and opting for medical treatment in the United States.
Fleeing Canada's Healthcare System
An unapologetic Danny Williams says he was aware his trip to the United States for heart surgery earlier this month would spark outcry, but he concluded his personal health trumped any public fallout over the decision.
In 2013, nearly 42,000 Canucks left their homeland to avoid long wait times and inferior care that plagues their centralized health system. -Michael Bastasch
More and more, however, Albertans are bypassing the publicly funded health-care system and they are not just the stereotypical “rich,” who fly to the United States whenever for whatever. Many are just average Albertans (Martha and Henry, as former premier Ralph Klein liked to refer to them), who choose to spend their money on their health instead of waiting and waiting to be treated here in Canada.
"I'm in extreme pain," Shetty told me as we drove along a bumpy road from the airport to the hospital. "I'm stuck at home, I can't work. It is difficult for me to provide financial support to my family and the quality of my life is very bad." Shetty has come to India for a partial hip replacement surgery. He was told he would have to wait up to 2½ years for the operation if he stayed in Calgary where he's lived for the last 20 years.
Democrat, Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Obama, Financial, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare, Regulation
Forty-six percent of doctors give President Obama's healthcare law a "D" or an "F," according to a new survey from the Physicians Foundation. In contrast, just 25 percent of those surveyed gave the law an "A" or a "B."... Another comment read, "I'm a Canadian physician practicing in the United States. The politicians and policy makers need to understand that government involvement in healthcare never works."
Government, Incompetence, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare
A Canadian study released Wednesday found that many provinces in our neighbor to the North have seen patients fleeing the country and opting for medical treatment in the United States. The nonpartisan Fraser Institute reported that 46,159 Canadians sought medical treatment outside of Canada in 2011, as wait times increased 104 percent — more than double — compared with statistics from 1993... As many as 2.8 percent of Canadians were waiting for treatment at any given time, according to the Institute. “In some cases, these patients needed to leave Canada due to a lack of available resources or a lack of appropriate procedure/technology,” according to the Institute. “In others, their departure will have been driven by a desire to return more quickly to their lives, to seek out superior quality care, or perhaps to save their own lives or avoid the risk of disability."
Government, Incompetence, Narrative, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare
Thousands of Canadians continue to flee the country to seek medical treatment abroad, with the United States a common destination. An estimated 42,173 Canadians left their homeland in 2012 to seek medical treatment elsewhere. This is a decrease from the 46,159 Canadians who fled the country in 2011 for medical treatment.
Socialism, Healthcare
Liberal MP Belinda Stronach, who is battling breast cancer, travelled to California last June for an operation that was recommended as part of her treatment, says a report.
Politics, Socialism, Healthcare
"I would've been criticized if I had stayed in Canada and had been perceived as jumping a line or a wait list .… I accept that. That's public life," he said.
Socialism, Healthcare
Concern about waiting lists for elective procedures has become a highly visible challenge to the universal health insurance program in Canada. In response to lengthening queues for patients waiting for cardiac surgery, British Columbia made contracts with four Seattle hospitals to send a total of 200 patients for coronary artery bypass surgery.
A Canadian study released Wednesday found that many provinces in our neighbor to the North have seen patients fleeing the country and opting for medical treatment in the United States. The nonpartisan Fraser Institute reported that 46,159 Canadians sought medical treatment outside of Canada in 2011, as wait times increased 104 percent — more than double — compared with statistics from 1993.
Socialism, Healthcare
Hamilton’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) was full when Ava Isabella Stinson was born 14 weeks premature at St. Joseph’s Hospital Thursday at 12:24 p.m. A provincewide search for an open NICU bed came up empty, leaving no choice but to send the two-pound, four-ounce preemie to Buffalo that evening.
Socialism, Healthcare
Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams will undergo heart surgery later this week in the United States
Socialism, Healthcare
The cancer treatment problem is the latest in a series of difficulties experienced by Quebec’s health system. Earlier this year, hospital emergency rooms in the province suffered from overcrowding and long waiting lists.
Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
He said there are many stories of Canadians having difficulty obtaining a definitive diagnosis in a timely manner, resulting in a treatment lag. "I think there's enough evidence that the health-care system is strained in some cases to the breaking point, depending on which part of the country you're in, and the delays in treatment have resulted in death ... or resulted in situations for others who have to live in pain while they're waiting for a diagnosis or joint-replacement surgery or for back surgery."
Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
"I had wanted to bring forward a program that involved Mayo Clinic because I'd been exposed to how Mayo Clinic does health care," said Viccars, who first approached the world-renowned, not-for-profit institution more than three years ago about setting up an insurance program for Canadians. He said there are many stories of Canadians having difficulty obtaining a definitive diagnosis in a timely manner, resulting in a treatment lag.
Government, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare
2013: Among the 12 medical specialties, the largest numbers of patients receiving care outside Canada were estimated for urology (6,635), general surgery (5,537), and ophthalmology (3,083). Patients were less likely to be receiving cardiovascular surgeries (114), radiation treatment for cancer (127), and chemotherapy for cancer (249) in another country.
Socialism, Healthcare
Pressured by an aging population and the need to rein in budget deficits, Canada's provinces are taking tough measures to curb healthcare costs, a trend that could erode the principles of the popular state-funded system.
I have written here before about Roger Foley, a disabled Canadian man who claims he has been denied proper medical treatment and independent living services, but has been offered euthanasia.
-Wesley J. Smith
Socialism, Healthcare
The average wait time for a Canadian awaiting surgery or another medical treatment was 18.3 weeks in 2007, a new high according to a report released Monday by the Fraser Institute.
Socialism, Healthcare
One woman went to Turkey for treatment. Another, Johanne Lavoie, was among several sent to the United States. Diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in 1999, she traveled every week with her 5-year-old son to Vermont, a four-hour bus ride. "It was an inhuman thing to live through," Lavoie told Toronto's Globe and Mail.said
Socialism, Healthcare
"Ask any health care provider: We are unable to provide access to care in a timely manner. Waiting lists are getting longer and patients are suffering," he says.
Socialism, Healthcare
Despite an increase in public awareness about women and the No. 1 killer — heart disease — mortality rates remain higher among women than men because women are not receiving the same level of care that men do, according to a heart specialist.
The latest data for waiting lists indicates that in 2014, Canadians could expect to wait 18.2 weeks for treatment after seeing a general practitioner, which is 96 percent longer than they had to wait in 1993. Such wait times are three weeks longer than what physicians consider clinically reasonable. -Jason Clemens and Bacchus Barua
Socialism, Healthcare
A few years later, Canada's Supreme Court found that some patients had in fact died as a result of waiting for medical services.
Socialism, Healthcare
For example, the median clinically reasonable wait time before receiving neurosurgery is 5.8 weeks. In Canada in 2008 it was 31.7 weeks. For gynecology it's 5.6 weeks v. 16.1 weeks. And for internal medicine is 3.3 weeks v. 12.5 weeks.
Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
Canada ranked among the leaders in the number of physicians, but that was before government healthcare drove doctors out of the practice in droves... Overall, the cancer death rate in Canada runs 16 percent higher than in the United States. Cancer does not wait for waiting lists to clear.
Socialism, Healthcare
Dr. Anne Doig, the incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association, said her country’s health care system is “sick” and “imploding,” the Canadian Press reported.
Put simply, Canada’s model of health care delivery and financing is not something to be emulated but rather avoided. In terms of cost, Canada’s system is among the most expensive of the OECD countries that provide universal access to health care, after adjusting for age. -Jason Clemens and Bacchus Barua
Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
Losing her first baby was devastating enough but having to do it in a crowded waiting room is what angered Christine Handrahan the most. The 29-year-old Peakes woman was nine weeks pregnant when on July 12 she started bleeding. Fearing the worst, Handrahan and her husband, Michael, headed to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s new emergency room. There she waited more than three hours, blood seeping out of her jeans, tears rolling down her face as she feared she was losing her baby — or that she might be bleeding to death. Still, she waited and waited.
Socialism, Healthcare
PORT HARDY, B.C. — NDP Leader Jack Layton, who's campaigning as the defender of public health care, had surgery at a private clinic in the 1990s, The Canadian Press has learned.
Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
“I applied everywhere,” said orthopedic surgeon Alex Rabinovich, 32, who trained in Hamilton and Dallas and has been on the job hunt for two years. “They [hospital administrators] tell me: ‘We would love to have a foot and ankle surgeon – our wait times are ridiculous. However, we don’t have the resources.’”
Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
As Jeff Turnbull, president of the Canadian Medical Association, says: “I think there’s a need for us to have alignment throughout our health-care system to ensure that the right type of activities are rewarded appropriately and that we don’t have perverse incentives or disincentives."
Suicide Is A Covered Expense...
It would be easy to judge Sean Tagert, who was diagnosed with ALS six years ago. Do I believe he made the wrong choice? Sure. But I wasn't the one who was struggling to pay for my health care after losing my ability to breath on my own or feed myself.
I'm not the one living under Canada's health care system that was more than happy to pay for my suicide but not the care I needed.
“In some cases, these patients needed to leave Canada due to a lack of available resources or a lack of appropriate procedure/technology,” according to a report by the Fraser Institute — a free-market Canadian think tank. “In others, their departure will have been driven by a desire to return more quickly to their lives, to seek out superior quality care, or perhaps to save their own lives or avoid the risk of disability.”
Liberal, Government, Narrative, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare
Poorer people have a harder time getting a doctor's appointment in Canada, a new study suggests - even though the country's universal health insurance pays doctors the same amount regardless of the type of patient they see. Researchers who called primary care practices pretending to be a bank employee or on welfare were 80 percent more likely to be offered an appointment when taking on the wealthier persona.
Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
Dr. Gross, and others in the Toronto Central Local Health Integrated Network, is facing a cut in operating-room time to do hip and knee replacements – his has been reduced by about half – after government money to fund the surgery started to run short.
NDP Health critic France Gélinas called the short-term situation ludicrous.
...
“We have highly trained skilled professionals, we have ORs, we have hospital support,” Ms. Gélinas said in a telephone interview from Sudbury on Tuesday. “And all of this will go idle.”
Resorting to GoFundMe For Care in Canada...
Leeann Galloway, a 48-year-old Nova Scotian, was scheduled to receive a double lung transplant before the government put her procedure on indefinite hold.
She's been forced to resort to GoFundMe to try to secure the money her family needs for living expenses in Toronto, where she's slated to have the procedure done, and the care the single-payer system doesn't cover.
Government, Incompetence, Socialism, Healthcare
For years, private health-care providers have been operating under the radar in Canada. But now, with the aging baby boom generation threatening to strain the country’s single-payer system to the breaking point, provinces are exploring new avenues of public-private partnership. And that, for the first time, is attracting serious investment to the private sphere... Meanwhile the Westbank First Nation in Kelowna, B.C., is looking to partner with Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital to develop a $120-million for profit hospital targeted at tourists and Canadians looking to bypass wait-lists for treatment.
Government, Financial, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare
CALGARY, Oct. 17, 2012 /CNW/ - In a report released today by The School of Public Policy, authors Herb Emery, David Still and Tom Cottrell show that even with modest increases in health spending due to population aging, Canadian Medicare under the current pay-as-you-go funding model for Canadian is unsustainable.
You could throw 100 per cent of the money in this country at health care and it wouldn’t fix anything. It wouldn’t fix wait times. It wouldn’t fit the out of pocket expenses (now more than thirty cents out of every dollar spent on health care in this country). People remember the so-called “Greatest Canadian”, T. C. (Tommy) Douglas, for his first in the country medical system in Saskatchewan. They forget the important part: Douglas’ system had user fees. -Bruce A Stewart
Incompetence, Funny, Socialism, Healthcare, Metaphor
In April 2010, McNeely got into a fight after an arm wrestling match and was stabbed five times, he told the Canadian Press news agency. Doctors at the local accident and emergency room stitched him up but never took an X-ray, he said. Seeking subsequent treatment for the lingering discomfort, he was told he had suffered nerve damage. But this week, McNeely, 32, was scratching his back as usual when his fingernail caught on something. His girlfriend took a look. "I told Billy: 'There's a knife sticking out of your back.' I was scared. I was ready to pull it out with tweezers," Stephanie Sayine told CBC News. McNeely is considering whether to file a lawsuit against the local health department.
Government, Incompetence, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare
Wait times in Canada’s health care system increased between 2012 and 2013, according to a new report from the Fraser Institute — and they are sky high in comparison to 1990s levels... However, general levels for all practices are historically high, and physicians consider these times longer than what is clinically reasonable.
Government, Incompetence, Oops, Waste, Socialism, Healthcare
Patients in Canada’s single-payer health care system spent $1.1 billion of their time waiting for health care in 2013, according to a study from a free-market Canadian think tank... The median wait time to see a health care provider in Canada is 9.6 weeks, up from 9.3 weeks in 2012. The queue for health care services in the single-payer nation has been lengthening since 2009.
Government, Incompetence, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare
It’s a common complaint — Canadians needing medical attention having to cool their heels in a hospital emergency room for hours on end before being seen by a doctor or another health-care practitioner.
Well, it turns out that compared to other industrialized countries, Canada has the highest proportion of patients reporting excessively long waits in an emergency department, a report released Thursday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) shows.
Government, Incompetence, Oops, Socialism, Healthcare
A survey by the Fraser Institute found a median wait of 20 weeks for “medically necessary” treatments and procedures in 2016 – the longest-recorded wait time since the think tank began tracking wait times. That’s more than double the wait times reported in 1993, when the right-leaning think tank began tracking the issue in Canada.
“You have already violated my preferences…So what is the plan that you know of?” Foley asks the man.
“Roger, this is not my show,” the man replies. “I told you my piece of this was to talk to you about if you had interest in assisted dying.”
In a separate audio recording from January 2018, another man is heard asking Foley how he’s doing and whether he feels like he wants to harm himself.
Foley tells the man that he’s “always thinking I want to end my life” because of the way he’s being treated at the hospital and because his requests for self-directed care have been denied.
The man is then heard telling Foley that he can “just apply to get an assisted, if you want to end your life, like you know what I mean?”