Medicare

[Hopalong]

Lots of discussion and controversy in the United States over medical care.
Hardly any mention of Canada system on either their media or ours.
Would hazard a guess that most of us, if not satisfyed at least, would not support major change.
If that is so, wonder why US people are having so much trouble?

[Ache4Acres]

I heard brad wall talking about medicine user fees. Watch for it coming down the pipeline...

[stonepicker]

User fees would be the best thing to happen to medicare, plus administration and politics have made it burdensome.

[farmaholic]

User fees would be the best thing to happen to medicare, plus administration and politics have made it burdensome.

Too many unnecessary return visits is part of the.problem.

[Partners]

We had a 10 dollar fee yrs ago.

[15444]

In the future, you'll pay nothing, get everything free (including all drugs) and live forever. Of course the government will take 80% of your income to pay for it, but hey, who cares right? You can brag to the world how your country has 'free' healthcare and snub your nose at the neighbors to the south. And government loves a healthy cash machine.

[Oliver88]

When 3/8 of the Saskatchewan budget is allocated to healthcare it is far from "free".

And is our service good?

[helmsdale]

case in point. I have a hiatal hernia, that is genetic. I'll have it for the rest of my life. Every three months I have to go in and get the prescription renewed... 4 visits to the family doc a year that could be reduced to one every 4 years or even longer. I've asked for longer prescriptions but the doctor says they want to monitor everything and make sure there aren't any changes. What does this "monitoring" entail? A discussion about how farming's going, where ya been in the truck the last three months, etc etc... No blood pressure, or any sort of checkup other than a "how ya feeling". Well if that's as involved as monitoring is, then i might as well monitor from home, and if anything changes, I'll be sure to book an appointment and get it figured out. BUT... Then they wouldn't be able to bill the system for a standard checkup. What are the vast majority of individuals in the doctors office for? Prescription renewals i would bet are a LARGE portion of it. That's one problem.

A second problem is the vast array of medical bureaucracy. Volunteered on the health foundation board for a while, and some of the people that we had to liaise with in the medical community had nearly unintelligible designations. What exactly is an assistant senior executive vice president? No idea where that falls, but one can be sure it involves a pay raise over top of an assistant junior executive vice president.

A third problem is the inordinate cost associated with renovating, building, or purchasing anything "medical". Health foundation tried for YEARS to get wifi into the hospital. It got kicked up the chain numerous times, and every time it came back with bids in the low to mid 6 figures. Jesus, I know farms that have extended wifi signals over their entire farms spread out over many miles for less than $20,000. But i suppose they didn't hire union only shops to do the install, plus purchase all their supplies from medically certified suppliers, yada yada. Or take for example the fact that our local hospital had funds in place to renovate the entire hospital from front to back. New ER, new delivery room, new ambulance bays, new waiting room, new lab, and renovated facilities for all the staff and patients. Money ran out, and they didnt even make it to the nurses station! Too bad we as farmers couldn't get paid on a cost plus basis, where we were the sole arbitrators as to what our costs should be. Want to take on a job 120 miles from home and get home every night? Why not. Show up at your shop, 120 miles from the job at 8, assemble all the tools and supplies you'd need for the day, have a tailgate meeting, then make it 1 hr down the road just in time to pull over at the river for a 30 min union mandated coffee break. Get to the job at about 10:30, put in an hour and a half of work, then shut er down for an hour while you have lunch. Work another 1hr 30 min, then its time to head back home since you have to make sure that 2 hr drive will have time for the 2nd 30 min coffee break of the day. Paying for 8.5hr's of labor a day, plus mileage and you can only put in 3 hours of actual work. But hey, your a buddy of a buddy who has the ear of the minister. Nothin but gravy. All the while you and I continue to send our cheques to the CRA while beating our chests about "free" healthcare. Someone's making out like bandits, and it sure as hell aint the regular joe!

I could go on. But i'll just continue strokin my cheques and beating my chest i guess...

[farmaholic]

Agreed Helmsdale....there is as much, if not more, abuse of the healthcare system by doctors as patients. There's no doubt some situations are critical but many visits could probably be avoided.

It is an Indusrty thats sole purpose is to keep people healthy. ...at all costs.

What about the people who don't take care of themselves? Their habits and lifestyle choices that aren't conducive to good health....is that society's responsibility to keep them healthy. The cost to society is financial, to the person......potentially their life. If they don't care why should I? How and where do you draw the line?

[MBgrower]

Id say user fees would be a good thing, min $150 just to walk into the hosipital door. The problem is probably 5% of the population uses 80% of the medicare system. It is quite likely the government will continue to support these people and not charge them anything. As for the person who rarely uses the system, one who takes care of themself, and is fortunate enough to never of had a serious condition will pay more and more for all the drunks, smokers, druggiees , glue sniffers, obese, etc.

[15444]

Agreed Helmsdale....there is as much, if not more, abuse of the healthcare system by doctors as patients. There's no doubt some situations are critical but many visits could probably be avoided.

It is an Indusrty thats sole purpose is to keep people healthy. ...at all costs.

What about the people who don't take care of themselves? Their habits and lifestyle choices that aren't conducive to good health....is that society's responsibility to keep them healthy. The cost to society is financial, to the person......potentially their life. If they don't care why should I? How and where do you draw the line?

As one of those people who doesn't take care of themselves (by skinny-**** vegetarian standards) - as long as I am paying out the ass on tax for healthcare and every sin tax, you're damn right the system can take care of us. Too bad cancer/heart disease/diabetes wasn't contagious as the government would actually put the money forth to cure them. Look at Ebola and how fast a vaccine was developed for it when the elite dipshits realized it was within the borders of North America. No, arts and UN funding is so much more important.

[ajl]

Agree helms. I had a medical for my class 1 a few years ago. While there, I asked about prescription renewal on the same visit. Was told the the doctor was not supposed to do that but he did it anyways because to do otherwise would be silly. The system is abused by many. That abuse is now so normal it would unimaginable otherwise. I would like to see a copay system with a user fee at the time of a visit and healthcare insurance to pay balance so bring costs under control.

[Hopalong]

As much as some of us might wish for it, do not see enough pressure being put on Canada or British or Australian governments to move significantly back to user pay systems.
Expect adjustments to tax system to extract more money from affluent elderly to mollify younger generation.
Obamacare was a move by United States toward more taxpayer funded health care but Trump is not getting anywhere fast in efforts to repeal it. Success or lack of it for Trump will likely indicate which way we go here.

[blackpowder]

I salute everyone on here whose entire family has perfect genetics and nun like lifestyles.
Glad that gods dont govern.

[farmaholic]

No such thing BP. An aging body no matter how well it was maintained will break down in time. I had/have way more bad "habits" than a single holier than thou "habit". lol