Canadian Healthcare
Maybe some people are okay with this, I am not:
Canada had the longest waits for primary and specialist care of all 11 common wealth countries, and every province had significantly longer waits than the international average[69]
The median wait time in Canada from General Practitioner to specialist is 18.4 weeks (over 4 months)[67] in 2015.
Although life-threatening cases are dealt with immediately, some services needed are non-urgent and patients are seen at the next-available appointment in their local chosen facility.
The median wait time for diagnostic services such as MRI and CAT scans [68] is two weeks with 86.4% waiting fewer than 90 days.[66] The median wait time for elective or non-urgent surgery is four weeks with 82.2% waiting fewer than 90 days.[66]
- Canadian Liberal MP Belinda Stronach went to the United States for breast cancer surgery in June 2007. Stronach's spokesperson Greg MacEachern was quoted in the article saying that the US was the best place to have this type of surgery done. Stronach paid for the surgery out of her own pocket.[89] Prior to this incident, Stronach had stated in an interview that she was against two-tier health care.[90]
- When Robert Bourassa, the premier of Quebec, needed cancer treatment, he went to the US to get it.[91]
- In 2007, it was reported that Canada sent scores of pregnant women to the US to give birth.[92] In 2007 a woman from Calgary who was pregnant with quadruplets was sent toGreat Falls, Montana to give birth. An article on this incident states there were no Canadian hospitals with enough neo-natal intensive beds to accommodate the extremely rare quadruple birth.[93]
- A January 19, 2008, article in The Globe and Mail states, "More than 150 critically ill Canadians – many with life-threatening cerebral hemorrhages – have been rushed to the United States since the spring of 2006 because they could not obtain intensive-care beds here. Before patients with bleeding in or outside the brain have been whisked through U.S. operating-room doors, some have languished for as long as eight hours in Canadian emergency wards while health-care workers scrambled to locate care." [94]
- In 2010, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams traveled to the US for heart surgery.[95]
Limited coverage for mental health[edit]
The Canada Health Act covers the services of psychiatrists, who are medical doctors with additional training in psychiatry. In Canada, psychiatrists tend to focus on the treatment of mental illness with medication.[106] However, the Canada Health Act excludes care provided in a "hospital or institution primarily for the mentally disordered."[107] Some institutional care is provided by provinces. The Canada Health Act does not cover treatment by a psychologist[108][109] or psychotherapist unless the practitioner is also a medical doctor. Goods and Services Tax or Harmonized Sales Tax (depending on the province) applies to the services of psychotherapists.[110]
Although dental health may affect overall health, routine dental care is not covered. Certain dental surgery, when performed in hospital, is covered.[113][114]