IT'S TIME FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

There was a tv special not long ago about universal health care, and they mentioned that the homogeneity may answer why all Danes wish to see everybody with health care. In the US, we have over 150 countries represented, and that may make the difference why not all Americans wish to have universal health care.

Toronto, with a population of 2.48 million people ( 5 million in the GTA - Greater Toronto Area ) is heralded as one of the most multicultural cities in the world and is ranked as the safest large metropolitan area in North America by Places Rated Almanac. Over 100 languages and dialects are spoken here, and over one third of Toronto residents speak a language other than English at home.

Between 2001 and 2005, the Toronto CMA attracted an average of 107,000 international immigrants each year, The City of Toronto welcomed two thirds (69,000).
43 per cent of Toronto's population (1,051,125 people) reported themselves as being part of a visible minority, up from 37 per cent (882,330) in 1996.
the top four visible minority groups in Toronto were:
Chinese at 259,710 or 10.6 per cent of our population
South Asian at 253,920 or 10.3 per cent
Black at 204,075 or 8.3 per cent
Filipino at 86,460 or 3.5 per cent
49 per cent of Toronto's population was born outside of Canada, up from 48 per cent in 1996
new immigrants to Toronto since 1991 number 516,635, representing 21 per cent of our population.
fully one in five Toronto residents arrived in this country during the 1990s
one in four children between 5 and 16 in the City of Toronto are new immigrants having arrived between 1991 and 2001
while the City of Toronto had 48.7 per cent of the GTA's population in 2001, we were home to:
57.8 per cent of all GTA immigrants (1,214,625)
64.4 per cent of all new immigrants that arrived in the GTA during the 1990s (516,635)
60.4 per cent of all GTA residents identified as belonging to a visible minority (1,051,125)
Toronto has 79 ethnic publications

The average outcome will be determined by the difference in behavior of the government bureaucracy that administers the new program with the administration of the company and insurance companies tha run the present ones.

Those who are unemployed will certainly benefit, those who are employed will almost certainly discover that their after tax costs have grown higher and that the quality of the service they get is lower.

Even in the USA, an increasing number of corporations are coming to the realization that universal healthcare is in their best interests.

If more physicians refuse to treat patients who're enrolled in a universal health care program, and a physician shortage for this plan results, what will the patients enrolled in a universal health care program do?

miller wote :

there are now quite a few younger physicians that are lobbying the government to do away with FEE FOR SERVICE payments . instead they prefer to be paid for a given number of patients for whom they would provide health-care services for a set fee per patient .
they see themselves as true HEALTH-CARE PROVIDERS , rather than medical profesionals that a patient just calls on when sick .
hbg

...regardless of the health outcomes. ...

Advocate wrote:

Even in the USA, an increasing number of corporations are coming to the realization that universal healthcare is in their best interests.

If you've been following MEDICAL BLOGS then you know that universal healthcare is NOT in the best interests of the American-educated physicians who would be involved in the administration of this "universal health care" should the plan ever be adopted in the US.

If more physicians refuse to treat patients who're enrolled in a universal health care program, and a physician shortage for this plan results, what will the patients enrolled in a universal health care program do?

Will they be treating themselves?

February 19, 2007 in Physicians | Permalink

george wrote :

Quote:

...regardless of the health outcomes. ...

are physicians ever paid for HEALTH OUTCOME ?
from what i understand , physicians are paid for SERVICE PROVIDED regardless of outcome .
are you able to tell your physician that you are not going to pay him if he doesn't provide service satisfactory to you - or if he doesn't cure whatever ails you ?
you may be able to tell your plumber that you won't pay if he can't fix the plugged drain - but even the plumber will likely bill you for the call-out .

i understand that lawyers work somewhat like that in the USA ; if the lawyer doesn't win your case , you don't pay . have i got that right ?
but how much do you have to pay when the lawyer does win ?

perhaps physicians might want to adopt such a billing system .
physician to patient : "if i cure you of your .... ailment , 20 % of your future earnings will be mine - take it or leave it ":wink:
hbg

In a subsequent post you cite material indicating that in the U.S. costs are driven up by patients who are covered by insurance, demanding unnecessary services. I suppose in Canada the reciprocal is true - namely that government contains costs by denying (or rationing) services based on the arbitrary decisions of administrators who have no place in the patient doctor relationship. Which outcome is better?

certainly when we see our physician , it won't do us much good TO DEMAND unnecessary services or drugs - he won't go along with it .
certainly we can talk to him and ask him about specific medications and treatments , but if he sees no value in them , he explains to us that they are of no value . just DEMANDING something doesn't mean he'll agree to prescribe some nostrum - is that differnet in the U,S, ?
does the patient tell the physician what treatment he/she considers appropriate ?
telling our physician : "the insurance will pay for it" , won't cut any ice with him ! (and we certainly agree with him on that approach ) .

I don't think that the patient should be treated as cattle with no voice in their medical care.

we have certainly never been treated like cattle by the medical professionals who have looked after us .
hbg


I believe I know my own body as well as the doctor (albeit from a different perspective) and generally insist on an explanation for what is recommended and don't hesitate to express my opinion.

we see our physician , he'll examine us , listen to us , recommend appropriate treatment , prescribe medications and discusses/suggests follow-up appointments .

yes , and we do expres our opinions . we tell the physician if the meds didn't work . sometimes he tells us that it'll take more than a few days for the meds to work , sometimes he describes a different medication - have not had a problem with that .
hbg



If I don't get a sufficient response, I find another doctor.

we have never had a reason to be dissatisfied with the physicians we've had in canada over the last 50 years . they've all been caring and understanding humans in addition to being physicians .

we do know people who were dissatisfied with their physicians and looked for and found another one - some were still dissatisfied after the third and fourth switch :wink:
hbg

perhaps i should add that whenever we have been prescribed a new medication the physician has always pointed out possible side-effects and signs to watch for .
when we pick up newly prescribed meds , the pharmacist will also ALWAYS discuss the medication with us and provide a full printout of the medication .
that is a standard practice all pharmacists must follow .
hbg