by Jim Hoft
American Issues Project
October 2009
If the US goes the way of Canada be prepared for long waiting lines.
Last week the Independence Institute held a ‘Real Canadian Health Care Field Trip’ in Vancouver, Canada. This field trip to Canada last week allowed American journalists to speak with ordinary Canadians who have lived under a rationed health care system. Canadian health care providers and experts also attended the conference and warned Americans about eliminating the free market options from our American health care system.
One of the biggest drawbacks to a rationed health care system is increased waiting times. Rick Baker of Timely Medical Alternatives Procedures founded a business to address this. His organization helps Canadians “Leave the queue” and take personal responsibility for their own private medical services. Some 875,000 Canadians are currently on the waiting list for referrals to specialists or for medical procedures. Rick Baker helps these Canadians cut the waiting time by seeking service in the United States. His organization has helped clients to regain their mobility, to get relief from chronic pain, and to get diagnoses of illnesses by bypassing the Canadian system. This is an effective business model for those living under the Canadian health care system. In Canada the waiting time for a knee replacement is up to two years. It could take up to three years to have your gall bladder removed. Cardiac bypass could take up to twelve months. It could even take up to six months for you to get an MRI in Canada.
Nadeem Esmail, the Director of Health System Performance Studies at the Fraser Institute, talked about waiting times in the Canadian health care system at the conference. Nadeem said that the waiting times are 190 times longer in Saskatchewan than they were in 1990. A clinically reasonable waiting time is 4 weeks for radiation for cancer treatments. Canadians are waiting 45 percent longer than what Canadian physicians believe is acceptable. In Canada you wait 9.7 weeks for a MRI and 4.4 weeks for an ultrasound.
Holt’s article continues at AIP.
