For state-covered, non-life-threatening treatments we can go to any doctor we want, but we might have to wait some time for the specialist we want. If you need urgent care in emergency at a hospital you get the best, for free, immediately, at least in Toronto. You do not get billed. Even brain surgery. Best care, several opinions, no bill. Are there problems? of course. Can we continue with an ageing population? Who knows. Maybe theadvancedapes or sounds_sound can chime in about his experience in Canada - although he's a healthy guy (or so it seems).One advantage the U.S. has is that people can go to any doctor that they want to, provided that they have the money.
There's a lot of misinformation being spread about the Canadian health care system. Canadians can go to any doctor they want. If they have money, they can join a for-profit Cleveland Clinic or one of their competitors.
The more I read your posts the more I agree with you about everything fellow Canadian. I absolutely hate it about how Canada is always brought up as an example about how bad a healthcare system can be. They say people are dying waiting in line for healthcare left right and center. There was a guy who died after a long wait in the emergency room like 6 years and people are still freaking out about it here in Winnipeg. And his was more caused by discrimination against him being homeless and native. Yeah we complain about certain parts in our politics, but we are just trying to make it even better. But our healthcare is streets ahead of the american system even with Obamacare.
Sure, but there are countries where this isn't the case. At the moment, in the U.S., part of the problem is that emergency rooms have to administer urgent care, whether or not someone can pay for it. This is why there are so many homeless admitted as John/Jane Doe. This is of course a problem for hospitals, but it's terrible for people being admitted as J. Doe because of course, the hospitals will not have access to their medical records. It must be harrowing enough to try to save someone's life, but to do so without even the possibility of access to a medical history must be much worse for the doctors. Anyway, the U.S. attracts high quality doctors and nurses of all kinds from all over the world in part because of the pay incentives. However the new system emerges, I hope that the quality of the medical professionals will stay the same or increase but for that to happen, there needs to be good incentives in place to attract them to the States to practice medicine. The issue of the age bubble needs to be taken into serious consideration and I hope that segment of the population will be well served by Obamacare without causing any other segment of the population to lack for anything.There's a lot of misinformation being spread about the Canadian health care system. Canadians can go to any doctor they want. If they have money, they can join a for-profit Cleveland Clinic or one of their competitors.