Posted July 16th, 2009 at 10.15am in Health Care. This Pajamas TV video is on the longer side, but it’s a must-see for those following the health care debate. Watch as Steven Crowder goes undercover deep inside the Canadian socialized health care bureaucracy.
He comes out relatively unscathed, though completely untreated for what he went in for.
It is Steven CrowDER not Crowley.
So would the experience be any different in the US if you went to your doctor’s office on a Sunday? You’d also find it closed. You’d also have a long wait in the emergency room. Funny as it is, this video doesn’t actually prove its point.
[...] Video: Undercover in Canadian Health Care [...]
As living in a border state, you will see many Canadians come to the US for their healthcare. Cleveland clinic which isn’t even a border state has quite a few Canadian cars in the parking lot.
This whole debate is Control not free health care for everyone.
I absolutely feel that we are headed in the wrong direction with health care. I do not believe that we should even consider socializing health care.
Bob. You are wrong. I can call my doctor any time of day or night and get answers, and get treatment when needed. There is usually an answering service. The answering service calls the nurse. The nurse often settles the issue for me, but if she cannot, she calls the doctor-on-call. I have had my child’s doc actually drive to the office and open it up for me and my child at 10 PM at night for a raging infection.
That is what we mean when we say we have excellent health care in the US.
Actually, the video does prove it’s point. It does not matter that it was a Sunday. That was not the point of the video although a component. The point was made after the Sunday visit by talking to Canadians about the typical trend there. The upshot is that regardless of the day, (WHICH WAS POINTED OUT BY THE WAY) that it was typical to have to wait and wait and wait. Don’t forget a woman lost a good leg trying to get the problem leg dealt with but due to the wait got screwed. Bob, you obviously do not work in the healthcare system. I do. I am a doctor and the video hits the nail right on the head. Nice job Steven!
Insurance companies, lawyers and politicians. They are always looking for ways to insert themselves between you and your money. Health care is one of easy ones for them to do it with because of the sympathy factor - “little Jimmy won’t get his operation because his parents can’t afford the price of those ‘greedy’ rich doctors”. Yes, that is sometimes true; some of the little poor Jimmies will indeed die in a totally free market system. But consider what we would have right now if socialized medicine has been mandated say back in 1909? - we’d have a a health care system a LOT more like what is was in 1909 because there would be ZERO incentive to anybody to cause it to improve. NONE of the modern life saving medical procedures available today, ones that save the lives of countless Jimmies who would have died in 1909, can claim to be the product of socialized medicine. Just like ANY business, when health care becomes socialized - innovation will stop. Socialism of the USA is simply the act of liberal politicians stepping in and raping the fruits that were created by captialism. And once they have eaten it all up and lined their own pcokets in the process, then it will be too late to fix because there will be too few doctors, too few clinics, too few pharmacies, etc. The path of destruction will be lined with dead bodies - OURS. Stop them.
As a nurse, I can truely say we do have the best health care, the really poor have medicaid, there are those who are uninsured at their own choice, I personally pay $200 plus a month for Medicare and Medigap, I could use this mone for other things. This is what some people do, a $300 car payment or health Ins. The constitution does not give free medical care,Limit Ins. co. from running the cost up and curtail pharmacutical co’s and cost will level off. Let Doctors practice medicine and keep Insurance companies from hiking cost so they can pay out these huge benifits and golden parachutes to there CEO’s.
Bob writes:
So would the experience be any different in the US if you went to your doctor’s office on a Sunday? You’d also find it closed. You’d also have a long wait in the emergency room. Funny as it is, this video doesn’t actually prove its point.
NOT in SE Michigan. Private enterprise previals. Most of the hopsital systems have “30 Minute Guarentees” and provide quality ER work fast. I know the people involved with the system and they are excellent. This is private enterprise - NOT government provide the service.
“I am a doctor and the video hits the nail right on the head.”
Which means you have a vested interest in keeping the current U.S. system in place because you made enormous money thanks to it.
For example, France’s healthcare system is way superior to the U.S. system, but it is also way cheaper.
Why? Because French doctors earn three times less than U.S. doctors. Unless U.S. doctors get rid of their flabbergasting delusion that they are by God’s Grace entitled to be millionaires, ordinary Americans will be squeezed as they are now.
During his speach to the AMA Obama made it clear that nearly everything in healthcare needed fixing (aka government intervention) except medical malpractice. Apparently American doctors and nurses are incompetent but we have the best lawyers in the world. Watching this video it is apparent that Canadian heath care could not exist in conjunction with the US legal system. No rational person would pursue a career in medicine where the government sets your salary and scavenging lawyers lay wait to pick you apart with frivolous law suits.
Forget copying Canadian or European health care models. Obama will take us back to third world medicine with visiting doctors and missionaries; but at least we will all have equal access.
Didn’t have time to proof read the previous posting.
The point is that if private enterprise is allowed to prevail good things will happen. The “30 Minute Guarentee” is becoming the managment model for many, many hopsital ER systems. The core mission is patient care in a timely manner. Independently measured satisfaction scores for patient care are incredibly high. People leaving the ER because of excessive wait times is almost zero. It works well and is profitable - even when treating people who are unable to pay.
The HF should consider interviewing the CEO of ER One in Michigan to gain insight into this business.
My father, an AMerican, lived in Canada for a few years while married to a Canadian. A neigbor in his 30’s, a Mountie (cop), was diagnosed with a brain tumor. They said, we have treatment & surgery for it, no problem, but you will have to wait your turn. 9 mo. later he was dead, while still in line.
My father was told the only people who get good health care in Canada are the politicians who go to the front of the line (something about their crucial importance to the good of society) and the rich, who drive to America for immediate care.
I bet a lot of French doctors would love to come to the U.S. to practice as well. Is French healthcare gov’t paid or is it free market healthcare?
To the European in DC.
Why are you here, again? What is your vested interest?
I know plenty of Doctors who are not millionaires. I know plenty who ARE God’s gift to their respective communities.
I don’t know many other people who will dedicate 12 years of their lives in school and residency and borrow over $200K to then be worked 12-14 hours a day for LOW wages. Hell, I know someone who makes $28/ hour and he complains if asked to do a 45 hour week.
Stop the class warfare. Stop trying to cannibalize the work of others. When France goes 6 months without major riots, we can talk about following your model “Civilization”.
Bravo! I’m sending it to everyone I know!
We have GOT to stop this bill!
I want the uninsured to be insured as well - but NOT like this!
It’s also so amazing how many Canadians I have met in my doctors office or dental office in Anchorage because thay cannot get care in Canada.
Oh, by the way European Conservative, private enterprise allows doctors to make good money and pay those enormous costs for their educations and their malpractice insurance and all of the other costs associated with being in business for themselves. Good for them if they make a lot of money, that is the American Dream.
How much do you want to bet Bob is a Oboma voter and supporter? Also Bob, it was a clnic, not a doctor’s office. Bob is just another brain dead Obama supporter.
Holy crap! Now I’m terrified, and rightfully so.
As someone who works for the largest private healthcare provider in the United States, I do have a “vested interest” in there being a thriving private healthcare industry. However, I also see a huge problem with the cost of care and the huge cost of Insurance. Does anyone actually know what will bring the cost down? As someone said in a post on here there is Medicaid for the really poor. The biggest problem is that there isn’t anything for people like me…the almost poor. I have been blessed to have a job that provides great healthcare at little cost to me, but its sad that to add my wife to my coverage will cost 300% more than what I currently pay!!?!
The most outrageous part of this whole system is the prescription drug industry. Why not socialize that? Keep the doctors, and hospitals, and emergency rooms private, but let everyone have free prescriptions through the Gov’t. The average person generally only goes to the Dr. when they are sick. The people really affected by “socialized” healthcare are those with chronic disease or mental illness. The poor people who need maintenance meds and routine doctor visits. I can’t remember the last time I was sick enough to need a doctor, but it is always reassuring that if I did need one, I could do it in a day and only pay 10 bucks at the time of the visit.
Apparently “socialized” is a new term for “procrastinated.”
It is called National Health Care for a very good reason. If you are healthy, you get care. If you are sick, forget it!
Hozro
I lived in Canada, experienced a seizure, received immediate excellent care, followed by long waits. The end of the story was the familiar - I went to the U.S. and got it handled promptly.
The Canadian system works fine if you are not seriously ill. I lost a good friend due to slow diagnosis and waiting. It is not an unusual happening.
Give me the U.S. system with less government intervention. Turn the insurance companies loose to get competitive so that we can shop for what we want. Go check on all the state and federal regulations that raise the costs so that people that choose to live unhealthy life styles and want unusual treatments covered are treated like everyone else. We need to take responsibility for ourselves, our family and our neighbor.
If the only option for our problem of rising health care costs is to turn the system over to the government - we are dead. Look at the financially insolvent systems like social security, medicaid and medicare - they make Bernie Madoff look like an amateur. Give the free market a chance and stop looking for a free lunch.
This video should be sent to the President and every Congressman and shown on all of the talk shows.
as a Canadian,living in Ca.,who experienced the Canadian system”1sthand”,I can conclude without a doubt that the “video”shown in no way reflects the Canadian healthcare system.Healthcare in Canada is paid for in taxes&I’m not sure what is wrong with paying for it this way.Healthcare for all Canadian’s is a right&I believe a country as great as USA should offer it’s citizen’s a similar “right”.The Canadian healthcare system needs to be improved/revised to reflect costs/needs,but I rate it as far superior on average to the healthcare service provided in the US for most people.
To: Bradley, Annapolis MD writes:
“The most outrageous part of this whole system is the prescription drug industry. Why not socialize that?”
First, your response seems to accept the fact that Obama Care would be Socialized Medicine. Great.
As for the prescription drug industry being socialized, where do you think the drive for innovation, for research and for improved drugs would come from? Government? Good luck with that. The opportunity to create advances in medicine go hand in hand with the opportunity to earn wealth…that’s the driver. Why do you suppose there is prize money associated with the Nobel awards etc., instead of simple acknowledgement?
To: Paul, a Canadian living in California.
What are your experiences with health care in the U.S. vs. Canada? I’d like to know how you’re actually making that comparison. Time after time we hear the horror stories about nationalized health care, so why are all these stories inaccurate? And, you’re right, there’s nothing inherently “wrong” with paying for your health care through taxes… That’s not the problem. The problem is allowing bureaucrats to determine how I’m treated. That’s probably the fundamental difference. Nationalized health care puts way too much trust in government. I agree there need to be improvements in the current system, but please don’t stifle innovation or competition, that’s what makes U.S. health care the best in the world.
No system is perfect. There will always be people that fall through the cracks. But, we’re seeing that it seems to happen way too often in socialized medicine. Free market systems have proven to work better - history proves that. Granted just because a doctor charges a lot doesn’t mean he’s that good or worth it, but I feel more comfortable going to an “expensive” private physician than to a lower paid state doctor. Most doctors take pride in what they do and where’s the incentive to stay up-to-date and well-trained in a nationalized system? We really need to be asking ourselves what will happen if this bill passes.
Thanks for this information.Great Job. I am fighting daily to stop government health care.
SHOULD CANADIAN HEALTHCARE BE RENAMED “POTEMPKIN HEALTH CARE”?????????
Excellent indictment of one city’s health care system in one province in Canada, and I may suspect it is endemic to the entire system countrywide even though the study was not really scientific.
However, before condemning all attempts at moving toward socialized medicine, an in-depth examination of the French or English systems might be in order. I have heard first hand from people I know that at least the French system delivers excellent care from well qualified professionals without the waiting or inefficiencies demonstrated in this video.
You cannot criticize or dismiss an entire concept by finding a single bad application. That is poor logic and appeals to ignorance and emotions. I hope I can assume that all of us want to better utilize our scarce resources to deliver health care to the entire population in the most efficient way.
Let’s try to lay the political banners down and be objective for a change. Stop using liberal and conservative labels and seek the truth. We are all humans. We all want to be healthy and frugal. Can we agree on that? Now let’s focus on the FACTS.
Thank you.
Not only that this video is true but is still far from showing the full picture of Canadian health care system.
I will try to emphasize only few things.
First about family doctors. In large cities is somehow easier to find a family doctor but even here you have to search for one because lots of doctors do not accept new patients because their revenue is limited so over a limit they are not anymore paid. In smaller cities is almost impossible to find a family doctor. Many family doctors are working 4-6 hours a day and you always need an appointment. In large cities you may also go in a walk-in clinic (only on weekdays during business hours) but usually you will wait 2 hours or more. At emergency, yes you wait 2 hours to be seen by a nurse and if you are not considered an emergency you will wait other 6-7 hours o see a doctor. If you go by night, almost for sure none will see you until morning unless you are dying. Only in Toronto within last 2 years I heard of 3 children who died within hours after they have been sent home from emergency rooms because they were not diagnosed correctly.
Now the family doctor can send you only for blood test or X-ray. If you have a condition that would require more sophisticated investigation, the family doctor will have to make you an appointment to a specialist doctor which takes between 4 and 8 months and then the specialist if considers necessary will make an appointment for that investigation which will take another 4-6 months and in the end if you need surgery in certain cases (like cancer) you will wait up to 1 year. Now I will give you some examples. A friend’s mother needed a surgery and because she held another citizenship (of a thirld world country) was advised by its family doctor to go there and have the surgery performed because waiting for a specialist, then for MRI and finally for surgery would take 2 years and she might not have that time. My son had an allergy reaction to a cookie and we got an appointment to an allergy doctor in 6 months. When I asked his doctor what should we do in all that time he answered we should consider him allergic to anything. Another friend with serious symptons, in emergency was able to perform 3 MRIs in one year (at 2-3 AM) and was told if she wanted faster to go to Bufallo. Another friend who developed cardiac pain had an appointment to a specialist in 6 months.
Now you say the system is under-funded (even if we pay an average 10% from our revenue for this health system) but this is not entirely true. Because the system is managed by Government is wasting lots of money and obviously there is not enough left for equipment and drugs. Then because doctors have limited revenues, they chose to practice in USA. A neighbour’s son is surgeon and used to practice in Toronto where he was performing 4-6 sugeries a day. Now he lives in a small city in BC where he performs 4 surgeries a month and gets the same amount of money.
If a nurse wants to take an un-paid vacation will be replaced with a nurse through an agency and paid 8 times more per hour.
The problem is that there is no private sector (I am talking about hospitals not about blood tests) in Canada so if you are willing to pay you cannot do it faster, you have to go to USA. Conservatives are trying for years to offer an alternative but they were always stopped by liberals. Cynicism is that while the current Conservative leader is using the public health care, all liberal leaders are using the private US system for their families.
As a Canadian, I am worried about the US health care system future for only one reason: if it will become as “good” as the Canadian one is, our only escape from the benefits of the Canadian system will be gone and there will be nowhere else we can go.
I was recently in the UK where I broke my leg, requiring surgery. Govt healthcare told me that IF I was lucky, I’d only be in “queue” (and traction) for only 5 days for my surgery…when they suggested I go to a private hospital where I was taken into surgery immediately! The ambulance driver told me that although medical care is “free” their taxes for socialized medicine is outrageous!
Hey,Canadian Paul who lives in California,
How come if the Canadian health care system is so good your living here? Do you go back to Canada for your health care needs? I bet not.
You say health care is a right but from what I hear about the Canadian health care people aren’t getting the care they need in time. Isn’t it there right?!! They pay for it with their taxes but still have to die because they can’t get help in time. I didn’t have health care until just this week. Up until now I have paid my own medical bills including one surgery. I’m in my mid fifties and I’ll take my chances any day over having the gov. tell me I have to wait or I’m to old. I plan on living a long time, as long as the gov. stay out of my business. I will be voting against this house and senate in the next election. The health care plan that they are trying to push on the American people isn’t the same one they plan on having. Shame on them!! What’s good for the goose should be good for the gander that laid it. President Obama and his family included. Bet it wouldn’t pass if that were the case. Could you see the president waiting for treatment if he or one of his children were severely ill. Something to think about.
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This video is unfair.
If you went to your doctor’s office on a Sunday in the US, it would also be closed!
As a health care professional, I agree the first patient was low priority. The symptoms he gave the nurse did not indicate a broken bone. The symptoms he presented made it seem like he could wait until Monday & make an appointment with his family doctor. If he didn’t have a family doctor, he could have gone to a clinic.
I can see my family doctor within 3 days & he will get me in the same day if it is urgent.
They cannot give out blood tests to random people who walk into clinics. They could have gone to a public clinic & got a referral for a blood test if it was necessary. Yes, Canada does not give out blood tests to random people who walk of the street and just say they want one. Why should we?
Did they only show the situation in one city in Quebec? I am sure we could show up at a hospital in US & find just as many atrocious stories.
Looking at this statistic, you would think Americans are the healthiest by far:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/files/2009/08/chart1.jpg
Unfortunately, not the case. If you study health care systems in an American university, scholars will tell you that the United States Health Care system is the most inefficient in the world.
Profits from insurance companies only add costs and do not increase care.
The USA spends 5% MORE of their GDP on health care than Canada, and not everyone has care.
Don’t be so quick to jump on the bandwagon of this video.
From an economics stand point, private health care is inefficient.
July 16, 2009 Tom, WI writes:
WOW, great job. I already write every elected official I can.