A Canadian style healthcare system for the USA? No bills, no hassles, no paperwork, no deductibles and it works too.

Our healthcare system is for a mess.   From our perspective as a healthcare provider, having to deal with care denials, pre-certifications, and third party administrators, which is behind the scenes of most doctor’s offices does little to improve the quality of care. Insurers are also auditing doctors and recouping money if their notes fail to include everything necessary to justify their fees.  Doctors have become obsessive about their notes for this reason which often distracts them from your care.

There are a number of proposals from Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders “Medicare for all” proposals to the public option idea which was originally proposed when Obamacare was born to keep the system honest. Unfortunately, politics and money prevented the public option from being part of the system however, Joe Biden is suggesting it is doable to give Americans another choice that is government-run and similar to Medicare, an approach which is gaining support.  Even the Trump administration has proposals to improve the current system with tweaks to how people are covered as well as promoting transparency in pricing, something that is sorely lacking when you go to the hospital or visit a healthcare provider in most cases.

Doctors and systems that have benefitted from high salaries and fees are lobbying to keep things as they are, however, those who use the system may be subject to outrageous surprise bills and huge fees once they leave the hospital after an illness.  Hospitals, in reaction to high deductibles, are sending patients to collection and suing them for non-payment, while raising their fees year after year which is purely inflationary. Americans have also been financially harmed by drug prices that are outrageous and continue to rise faster than inflation. Our healthcare system has some very unhealthy practices.

It has been a free for all which has harmed the average American financially, both through premiums and through high deductibles.  It has been my experience that many patients are nervous not only about their health problems but about their coverage and whether their care will be paid for by their insurer. Patients worry about their network and if their doctors take their insurance.   Some in-network fees are very low and doctors are leaving, giving patients fewer choices while the premiums continue to rise.  Our of network coverage is almost non-existent unless you have a plan that is self-insured by your employer.

Canada’s system has often been derided for long waits to see a specialist, fewer MRI machines, and less technology.   On the other hand, Canadians are quite healthy and here, you will also have to wait to see a specialist, sometimes for months.   The difference is what it costs us.    No other countries have deductibles or drug prices like we do.  In Canada, clinics and hospitals are private and the insurance covers large areas of the country, depending on the part you live in.  Canada also has private insurance people can buy in addition to the national system called Medicare.   When I was in Calgary a year ago, Blue Cross was advertizing their type of insurance on highway billboards.

I came across and an article that was written by someone who spent 21 years living in Canada.  He believes that a single-payer plan would reduce the cost of care markedly based on his experiences.  Canada is different in some ways than the United States which is much more capitalistic. then Canada is   The truth is that our healthcare system has become monopolistic instead which includes larger hospital systems, fewer insurance carriers competing and larger physician practices.  Smaller practices are being squeezed out by a system that rewards size and often ignores quality and cost-effectiveness.   This has most Americans paying more while getting less for their healthcare dollars than any other country in the world.

Check out his article below

How does the Canadian health system work? Very well
No bills, no paperwork, no copays, no deductibles … and no hassles compared to for-profit health care like that in the U.S.

BY DONI TAMBLYN

I’m an American who lived in Canada for 21 years. I’d like to outline the reasons why our healthcare costs would go down – quite sharply – with a single-payer plan.

Literally all other developed (and quite a few developing) nations have demonstrated for over 60 years that health care costs in the U.S. could realistically be cut in half with a single-payer system, in numerous ways.

First, within our traditional system, the astonishing amount of paperwork alone makes up some 30 percent of our end-user costs. This paperwork simply does not occur in other Western nations’ systems, where the only question is, “Are you a citizen who needs care,” rather than “Have you paid in sufficiently, and to our (ever shifting) specifications?”

Add to that the way pharma companies are free to charge Americans heart-stopping prices for their products. The governments of other nations – as the pharma companies’ only customer for those nations – are in a position negotiate prices aggressively on behalf of their citizens. This is the only reason people outside the U.S. pay one-half to one-tenth as much as we do for meds.

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