The Canadian health care system has become a monumental farce.
Waiting lists are getting longer, there's a severe shortage of beds, nurses and doctors.
It's not as "free" as one would think because we are taxed to death.
What has gone wrong? You can point the finger at every level of management of the plan.
The Feds get money from taxes (personal income, sales tax, sin taxes). So do the provinces. The provinces send a large amount of tax proceeds to the Feds. In return, the Feds are supposed to equalize the allocations to the provinces, according to their population. However, the provinces with the biggest population aren't necessarily the richest. Therefore, the provinces who contributed the most receive less than they should. The governments impose new taxes on a regular basis, which are supposedly intended to boost the health care but somehow, the money collected never seems to go to that specific area. There are no checks and balances.
Then there's abuse. An increasing amount of people seems to think that because it's "free", they can justify a visit to a doctor or the emergency for a hang-nail or a common cold. Don't laugh, it's true. Unless things have changed recently, nose and boob jobs are covered by the plan.
There's discrimination. New immigrants and certain ethnic groups are given precedence over the average tax payer. Surprised? I won't go into details, but my surgery for a broken ankle was delayed by a day because of that little fact. Oh yeah, a 3 mile ambulance ride cost us $295.
Prescriptions, eye and dental care aren't covered. Most people subscribe to Blue Cross (hefty monthly payment) in order to alleviate these costs.
In a nut shell, if the average working Canadian got back every penny he spent on "health-care taxes" in one year, he would be able to buy the Mercedes-Benz of health-care coverage and still have more money in his pocket than he ever did.
Our politicians are very well aware of the poor state of the universal health care. When they are in need of treatment, they get flown the the United States for medical attention -- a former Quebec Premier (the equivalent of a Governor) received treatment for cancer in New York a few years ago.
Beware America! There's no such thing as a "free" health care!
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