It's a teddit link so it's not contributing to reddit etc.
It getting harder to get timely appointment from recent years development in BC. It went from be able to book family doc in the same week to now about 1 month to 4 months away depending on how popular your doctor is. So with specialist it's gonna get harder.
We still have to aim higher than simply "it's free".
Over here in Montreal my GF and I have been waiting for a family doctor for already 3.5 years (took us just 1 month to get one back in Winnipeg).
The one time we had to go to ER, for a snowboarding head blow with concussion symptoms, we had to wait 13 hours on a quiet night because the night shift had only 1 doctor, in Montreal's 2nd most central hospital (Notre Dame). In fact, on average 12 percent of all ER visits in the Grand Montreal area end up leaving in frustration without being seen by a doctor.
Adding to the ER burden, walk in clinics no longer exist; you gotta use an online appointment finder, and finding an appointment often involves clicking on the search button for over 1 hour, fighting for elusive cancellations with many other people in the same situation.
Many countries have proven socialized healthcare can work very well. Spain, Israel, Italy, Germany among them. We gotta compare ourselves to them, no the US.
Well said. The American model is broken and Conservatives want us to emulate them. Socialized healthcare can work as long as it's funded appropriately.
'Canada is above the OECD average in terms of per-person spending on health care. Among 38 countries in the OECD in 2020 (the latest year for which comparable data is available), spending per person on health care remained highest in the United States (CA$15,275). Canada’s per capita spending on health care was among the highest internationally, at CA$7,507 — less than in Germany (CA$8,938) and the Netherlands (CA$7,973), and more than in Sweden (CA$7,416) and Australia (CA$7,248).".
Canada is a vast country which definitely makes the provision of health care a challenge. But Australia has around the same population density as us, spends a little less than we do and their health care is excellent.
Canada is saddled with administrative costs in our healthcare. I can't remember where I saw it but believe it was a CBC article and Canada pays some of the highest administrative costs for any public healthcare system. We are paying for pencil pushers not people doing the actual healthcare. That has to change.
My biggest frustration when I moved to Canada was that politicians, media and regular people always compare themselves with the US. You have a better social security system while comparing yourself to a country with almost no safety net. That isn't something to be proud of.