Canada falls short in several areas of health care...OECD countries, report says

[WiltonRanch]

but look how the dairy industry is screwing us now ?its bullshit

Yes benefit for producers in said industries.

[chuckChuck]

So if the government controlled dairy industry is so bad for farmers, why do so many conservative voting farmers support it?

Many farmers won't admit that part of their success and security is due to the subsidies and supports that many farmers receive from taxpayers.

But that doesn't stop them from complaining about subsidies and support to other industries does it. Do as I say not as I do?

According to the OECD significant parts of health care in Canada are underfunded and under performing because provinces don't want to fund it properly with several wanting to privatize as much as possible.

We have known about the baby boomer demographic for a long time.

[chuckChuck]

"The report, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), reveals how the country falls short in several key areas in comparison with nine other Organization for Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Canada has fewer physicians overall per capita, spends less of its total health budget on primary care, and has relatively high maternal- and infant-mortality rates.

Statistics Canada’s most recent data from 2021 suggest that 14.4 per cent of Canadians don’t have a health care ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/topics/health-care/[/url]) provider they can see regularly for care. The number of orphaned patients is expected to increase as older doctors retire and younger ones turn away from traditional family practice.

“We have to have a goal of guaranteed access to primary care and funded appropriately,” Tara Kiran, an author of the report and a family doctor at St. Michael’s Hospital and primary-care researcher at the University of Toronto, said in an interview. “Until we do that, unfortunately, we have a situation where we have haves and have-nots.”

Family doctors are the cornerstone of a high-functioning health care system. They help patients navigate the system, referring them to specialists for early screening and treatment of medical conditions. They also get to know the people they serve over time, allowing them to deliver higher-quality care than a walk-in clinic or emergency department.

The CMAJ report examines four countries – Norway, the Netherlands, Britain and Finland – where family doctors, known there as general practitioners, play a strong gate-keeping role.

Most of the doctors work in primary care – an office-based clinical setting that allows them to provide continuity of care for patients from infancy to old age. Registration with a doctor is either automatic, mandatory or strongly supported in all four countries, the report says. Doctors also provide after-hours care to their patients.

Walk-in medical clinics – a staple of Canada’s health system – are almost non-existent.

“These countries have really figured out how to hold their clinicians accountable for timely access to care,” Dr. Kiran said in the interview.

In Canada, by contrast, family doctors have more freedom over where they practice, how many hours they work and the patients they accept, the report says. A Globe and Mail story last year on Canada’s crisis in primary care found that many doctors divide their time between office-based care and practising in hospitals, nursing homes, walk-in clinics or sports-medicine clinics.

Working in primary care is becoming less attractive for many family doctors, causing them to reduce their hours or close their practices altogether. At the same time, many doctors are nearing retirement age – 14.6 per cent in Canada were 65 and older in 2022, figures from the Canadian Institute for Health Information show.

Overall, Canada has 24.4 physicians for every 10,000 residents, leaving it lagging well behind the other nine OECD countries, the report says. Norway has the most, with 50.5 physicians for every 10,000 residents.

With fewer physicians in Canada, family doctors must step in to support other parts of the health system, including working in hospitals, which leaves less of the work force providing primary care.

Canada also earmarks 5.3 per cent of its total health budget for primary care, well below an average of 8.1 per cent among other OECD countries, the report says.

In addition, the report notes that Canada’s infant-mortality rate was 4.5 deaths for every 1,000 live births in 2020, the highest among the ten countries.

International variations in how the data are collected can affect the rankings. Canada, for example, registers a higher proportion of babies weighing less than 500 grams, with low odds of survival, resulting in higher reported infant mortality, says a separate OECD report. In 2022, Canada ranked 31st out of 38 OECD countries, that report says.

More research needs to be done on this issue, Dr. Kiran said. “I think we actually just don’t know what all the determinants are for why or infant-mortality rate is so much higher than in other OECD countries.”

[Hamloc]

So if the government controlled dairy industry is so bad for farmers, why do so many conservative voting farmers support it?

Many farmers won't admit that part of their success and security is due to the subsidies and supports that many farmers receive from taxpayers.

But that doesn't stop them from complaining about subsidies and support to other industries does it. Do as I say not as I do?

According to the OECD significant parts of health care in Canada are underfunded and under performing because provinces don't want to fund it properly with several wanting to privatize as much as possible.

We have known about the baby boomer demographic for a long time.

You are correct, governments obviously knew that baby boomers were aging. And I agree there are not enough family doctors. But here is the problem, every provincial government in Canada increases its health spending budget every year. And yet health outcomes don’t improve, wait times don’t get shorter, family doctors are harder to find. We have a communist system in which everything is owned and controlled by the government. The government sets a budget and available services are rationed by available funding not necessarily by need. How to fix that? I don’t know. Most countries with better outcomes have hybrid systems in which you can take out additional health insurance. Chuck2 you can blame government underfunding but the last 20 years of constantly throwing more money at the problem by government has not helped..

[blackpowder]

So explain this spending chart compared to the level of service.

[chuckChuck]

OECD "Canada has fewer physicians overall per capita, spends less of its total health budget on primary care, and has relatively high maternal and infant-mortality rates."

The US spends nearly $16000 per capita and Canada around $7000. And the US system is based on a lot of profit driven private insurance and private care, that poorer and sick people can't afford and many of you want Canada to emulate that dysfunctional system that leaves many people without healthcare?

Where is this equality of "opportunity" and access you speak so highly of? Because it sure as hell doesn't exist in the US healthcare system.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Canada has fewer physicians overall per capita, spends less of its total health budget on primary care, and has relatively high maternal- and infant-mortality rates.

That doesn't sound like very good value for dollar spent, now does it?

[chuckChuck]

You mean the US system that is twice as expensive that you want to join?

We are spending much less on primary care and as a result many cases end up at the ER instead of the doctors office.

[blackpowder]

Your first question is a lazy product of conspiracy thinking. Study the difference between conspiracy thinking and conspiracy theories.
Shame on you. No one is saying they want to copy the US exactly.
I believe in spending more. Just not the current inefficient model. We appear to be spending the same as other, seemingly better systems.
Be a part of the solution for a change.

[chuckChuck]

I thought you believed all greed is good, making the american system just fine?

BP Are you having second thoughts already?

[LEP]

You keep saying it has to be either our system or the US model. Like Blackpowder says, very lazy or disingenuous.

Many hybrid systems that have better outcomes.

The Union/NDP/socialist mantra is the either or possibility. It touts the status quo when it could be so much better.

Better outcomes, better value for money.

Quit "crying wolf" and suggest solutions.

[chuckChuck]

We already have a hybrid model with some private clinics.

[Guest]

Just for once , I would like to hear you say “I Made a mistake and I have learned from it” , just once
most of the rest of us have admitted it once , or many times
part of being human

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Just for once , I would like to hear you say “I Made a mistake and I have learned from it” , just once
most of the rest of us have admitted it once , or many times
part of being human

Chuck actually admits that he is wrong all the time. He's just more subtle about it.
Every time responds with flat Earth, or running out of CO2 arguments, he is acknowledging that he was wrong.
Still working on the learn from it part.

[WiltonRanch]

We already have a hybrid model with some private clinics.

How does funding work with private imaging and diagnostics labs? Seems the likes of dynalife and other private imaging clinics around town can function within the current system.