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Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 11:11:16 AM

Sanity

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Is Canada's "free" health care experiment too expensive to sustain?

quote:

Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model

TORONTO (Reuters) – 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.

Ontario, Canada's most populous province, kicked off a fierce battle with drug companies and pharmacies when it said earlier this year it would halve generic drug prices and eliminate "incentive fees" to generic drug manufacturers.

British Columbia is replacing block grants to hospitals with fee-for-procedure payments and Quebec has a new flat health tax and a proposal for payments on each medical visit -- an idea that critics say is an illegal user fee.

And a few provinces are also experimenting with private funding for procedures such as hip, knee and cataract surgery.

It's likely just a start as the provinces, responsible for delivering healthcare, cope with the demands of a retiring baby-boom generation. Official figures show that senior citizens will make up 25 percent of the population by 2036.

"There's got to be some change to the status quo whether it happens in three years or 10 years," said Derek Burleton, senior economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank.

Full article here

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 11:27:04 AM

pahunkboy

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ramp up the free death panels.

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 12:03:40 PM

mcbride

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As much as I hate to ruin Sanity's happy dance, I have to point out that, darn the luck, no one's doing away with, or considering doing away with Canada's free, universal health care.

What individual provinces who run the system continue to do is look for, and implement, new ways to get more efficient. Periodically, someone will write a story noting those attempts, and I'm glad that Sanity has noticed one of them.

Canada must, of course, put up with conservative politicians who wring their hands about costs and propose things like means testing. Alberta's Ralph Klein, while personally popular during his 14 years as a premier, tried constantly to introduce private, for-profit measures, and was slapped down by his electorate time after time.

What's most notable is that, as the article suggests, the provinces have been clever, for the most part, about updating and streamlining their systems, and the innovations continue to produce measurable results that remain better than...well, you know who.

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 12:04:51 PM

Jeffff

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Sanity will not be happy until you are all dead from your second class health care

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 12:08:05 PM

pahunkboy

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Jeffff

Sanity will not be happy until you are all dead from your second class health care

ROFLMAO! Yup. STOMP!

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 12:08:24 PM

Moonhead

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"Experiment"? For fuck's sake, Sanity, they've been running this system for longer than you've been alive. It's hardly an experiment, particularly one set up by some barking mad right leaning type to demonstrate that socialised medicine cannot possibly work in the real world.
Or if it is, somebody who's read far too much Ayn Rand fucked up big time when they were setting it up...

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 12:12:19 PM

mnottertail

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because they are part and parcel of the NWO.

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 12:13:51 PM

pahunkboy

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Not for that reason- but many people take the path of least Resistance. So the fact that some will quit work and not worry about health coverage is not "news".

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 12:29:26 PM

Lucylastic

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Far be it for me to laugh at Sanitys ignorance but HAH hah(a la nelson)
Thats what we do, we streamline, we reassess, we make changes , and OMG its not even a new concept, we ADAPT to changes in all its many forms.
and we are gonna do it without half the country threatening to bleed the tree of liberty or freedom or whatever the hell it is the baggers are up to.
Its not a freakin experiment, its a work in progress, its a living system, slow at times, in trouble lots of times, but no one cept the tories want to chuck it(or people who invest in private medical care)
Its got many faults and yes its got lots of work that needs to be done, but its not gonna shrivel up and die, however much sanity is wishing for it.

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 12:33:15 PM

pahunkboy

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Lucy wants to serve on the death panel.

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 12:34:16 PM

Lucylastic

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When you come back to earth Hunky I will respond to you, until then, sayonara

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 1:03:49 PM

Arpig

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For the last time...its not "free" health care, its a publicly funded single-payer health insurance system that is slightly different in each province. Every employed Canadian pays for his/her insurance through their taxes and/or a special means-based health levy (again depending on the province). And even though we manage to cover everybody and without copays or deductables for almost 100% of medical care we still pay less per capita than Americans do for their private health insurance.

In Ontario (whose system I am familiar with) it is paid for by a percentage of one's income tax and a special payroll tax paid by the employer. It isn't free, I pay for my coverage, I just pay a fuck of a lot less than you guys do. We have no pre-existing conditions, everybody is covered, and if you move to a new province you are covered there, regardless of any pre-existing conditions.

I do not have to get approval from anybody (no bureaucrats, governmental or insurance company enters into the decisions at any stage) for any procedure my doctor deems necessary, there is no rationing based on age or income, and nothing needs to be pre-approved by anybody.

I can buy supplemental insurance (often provided through one's employer) to cover those things not covered by the government plan (in Ontario that includes prescriptions and dental) However there is a prescription plan for low income people whereby each prescription only costs $2 (which many smaller private pharmacies waive) which is entirely means-based with no extra fees and covers all medically necessary drugs (not viagra/cialis or rogaine for example).

All this and still we manage to pay less per person than Americans pay for their health plans with their high deductables, complicated formularies that vary from company to company and from plan to plan within a given company, and byzantine paperwork and convoluted negotiations for hospitals. I'll take our "experiment" over yours anyday.

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 1:07:24 PM

pahunkboy

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Sanity- call the morgue- you got a pigeon. lol

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 1:08:41 PM

Jeffff

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You are obviously a tool of J.P Morgan and Blue Cross/BLue Shield.

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 1:17:15 PM

Arpig

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Damn!!! And all this time I thought I was a tool of good Queen Bess....I am confused I tell ya, confused

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 1:21:44 PM

ThatDamnedPanda

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Arpig

For the last time...

But it won't be, as long as this forum is infested with ignorant, half-witted trolls who can't understand anything that contradicts their prejudices. It doesn't matter how many times you repeat it, they just keep creating and re-creating their own reality.

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 1:25:40 PM

Owner59

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Yeah,the Canucks are just racing toward your Wellpoint model.Which is to raise premiums 15%(or more) a year and toss policies when holders when get sick.

Don`t even think about using the word,sustain(ability).

It`s to big a concept for you.

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 1:44:14 PM

pahunkboy

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Folks- how many overbearing corporations run amuck in Canada.

The USA is much more monetized. Failure is funded and celebrated here.

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 1:52:35 PM

Moonhead

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To expand on a rare case of pa saying something sensible: part of the socialisation of medicine in Canada involves fixing the prices of medication below a certain level. Crap for the pharmaceutical companies, but good for people with a prescription to fill. You actually get people in the northern states with a convenient border heading into Canada to get their drugs cheaper.

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RE: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model - 6/1/2010 2:02:11 PM

DCWoody

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"experiment"

Ha.

Enjoy your non-soaring costs Sanity.

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