I mean, consider this: the author asserts that Canadians pay (on
average) 48% of their income in taxes, "partly for health care".
Does anyone know what sources are being used to provide these
statistics? For instances what taxes are in this 48%. Is it just
income tax, or does it include all taxes that the average person pays
like sales tax, excise tax on gasoline, sin taxes, etc? Does it also
include Canada Pension Plan (the Canadian equivalent of FICA in the
US)?
I live in Ontario, with a pretty good income, and if you're talking
about tax on income including what I pay for CPP and EI (employment
insurance), it's nowhere near 48%. It's actually closer to 29%. It
almost sounds like they're quoting marginal tax rates, not average tax
rates, especially not for Ontario which is one of the lower taxed
provinces.
Then
she asserts that the Ontario gubmint spends 40% of tax revenues on
health care.
Then she expostulates: "Wow! Forty-eight percent of
income for health care that you can't get when you need it. What a
bargain!"
I mean, gee-Zeus, that is just too inumerate for words! 40% of
48% is about 19% of Ontareans' income spent on health care, not 48%!
That's not 100% accurate either, because the provincial governments, in
this case Ontario, don't receive all of the tax revenue paid by a
person. They only receive the provincial income tax, and sales tax,
plus some transfers from the federal government. In other words, even
if the 48% paid were true, you can't say that 40% of 48% is spent by
Ontario for health care because Ontario wouldn't receive all of that
alleged 48% of a residents income. Most income tax goes to the federal
government.
The US health care system has problems. The Canadian system has
problems. They're just different problems, and the opponents and
proponents of each of those systems will emphasize the negative points
of the other system, in their arguments.
As far as waiting times go, there's no visible difference in the time
required to wait for general care. In Canada, if you're sick and you
need to see your doctor, you call the office and you'll see your
doctor. Similarly in the US. The biggest difference that I've seen is
that in Canada there's a longer wait to see a specialist or for
services that are not provided by a general practitioner. So, if your
doctor says that you need to see a neurologist, and you call for an
appointment, you might have to wait seven weeks for an opening. But,
if your situation is so severe that you need to see a neurologist that
day then they'd send you to an emergency room where you'd see a
neurologist. If a person slips and hits his head, but doesn't develop
any symptoms the doctor may order a MRI, and he'll probably have to
wait a few weeks for it. If he doesn't regain consciousness, he'll get
an MRI that day. Does that mean that someone won't fall through the
net. It does happen sometimes, but it's not the norm.
Nobody is saying that the system in Canada is perfect, far from it.
But opponents of it seem to give the impression that Canadians wait
weeks for everything, and that's not true, either.
PS, I was quite pleased with the Canadian hospital that stitched up
my
chin after an unpleasant *contretemps* on the Rouge river in Quebec a
few years ago. The locals advised me to drive across the Ottawa
river
into Refrew, ONT for medical treatment, since (they said) Ontario
hospitals pay their physicians more, and thus get the cream of the
Med
school grads.
Service was quick (the waiting room was empty, unlike
several American emergency rooms I have visited, which always seem to
be packed with people waiting eternally for treatment), treatment was
good, and though they were unable to bill my healthcare plan
directly,
they provided me with all the documentation I needed to recover my
costs.
Of course Renfrew is a pretty low populated area. I went into an
emergency room in Melbourne, Florida last summer and had equally quick
service when I needed stitches. The bill when all was done was
US$2,000. You mention that you've been to crowded US emergency rooms
and I agree that some places are crowded (my dad spent 12 hours in one
in New York). But, you can also spend that amount of time in an
emergency room in Toronto.
As I said, both systems have problems, just different problems. Do you
prefer a net that will always be underneith everybody, but with bigger
holes in the net, or a net with really small holes but which is only
under a percentage of the population?
Stephen Gallagher
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