Free Health Care
Yahoo.. free health care.
No more co-pays, HMOs and high priced drugs.
Now if we could only find a doctor that’ll take on new new patients.
There are some, but in Canada, you can’t go to a specialist without a referral – this means two things:
- You better find a family doctor that is connected..
- “The family physician decides, based on his/her medical knowledge, if the referral is necessary. Similarly, if he/she feels that a second opinion is unnecessary, he/she is not obliged to provide that referral.” So better find a good one.
It’s no wonder why this problem exists. Health is now 50% of the provincial budget. And it’s a big chunk.
On average, family doctor’s incomes in BC are already 40% lower than those of other specialists – and this discrepancy is increasing.
Plus doctors are capped at how many patients they can treat. Probably cause we don’t want a hard working doctor making too much money.
So by limiting the amount of patients a doctor can see, they can control costs.
Until we show up in the emergency room.
Interesting Canada Health Care Stats:
4 million people (approx. 12% of Canadians) lack a family doctor.
86 per cent of those who were born in Canada or immigrated more than five years ago have a doctor; just 65 per cent of more recent immigrants can say the same.
That means me. And now my family has to wait 3 months before they can get on the “free” health care, even though I have been paying my taxes for 7 months. At least they’ll have time to find a doctor.
Hey! Health care in the US wasn’t bad.
Michael Moore – can you look into this for me?
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