Health Care System In Canada

As human beings, just like other living organisms, our wellbeing is dependent on many factors. One measure of wellbeing is one’s length of life. Furthermore, and probably a more important point is the quality of that life. If we were to look at the average age in the 19th Century, it did not exceed 50 years. Whereas in today’s developed countries it has surpassed 80 years. However, there still exists in parts of the world where a great deal of population die at a much younger age. This is mostly due to the presence of infectious diseases such as AIDS or mal-nuritionment due to poverty or political conflicts that create wars of attrition, at the expense of people’s lives. Aside from wars and atrocities committed by people on people, premature …show more content…
Nevertheless, it may be perceived as a prelude of what is to come. Healthcare costs have significantly affected Canada’s level of national debt. It takes weeks, if not months, to get an appointment with a healthcare specialist. In case of cancer treatment, patients have to wait for months before their turn to receive chemotherapy or radiation therapy. And finally, if a healthcare professional is at fault for misdiagnosis or mistreatment of a patient, there is little recourse, if any, on the side of the patient since the government has to protect itself against lawsuits and legal fights against the government may not be successful most of the time. Furthermore, in order to be able to do business, insurance companies become creative in developing individual insurance policies that may make great sense, when it comes to keeping expenses at the lowest for the government but would not be of any use for a subscriber/patient. For example, a medical insurance policy that requires the subscriber/patient to pay the first $10000.00 of his/her healthcare cost in a given year, before the health insurance would start paying. For someone who may make $30000.00 per year, this may not be suitable. Furthermore, in order to curb healthcare costs, the government has great financial resources to run epidemiological and statistical studies in order to question the frequency of the need for certain medical examinations. For example, before the implementation of the Social Healthcare in the US, it was announced, by the government, that several studies have shown there may not be a need for female patients over the age of 40, to get mammograms as frequently as they do at present. These views did not end up interesting the medical/scientific community and created a backlash. Therefore, it was quietly put to rest. The negative financial impact that such system would have on the middle class America and small businesses,