OH, RIGHT, IT’S NOT *ACTUALLY* FREE

Just when I think that maybe socialized medicine isn’t such a bad idea after all, I read something like this:

Today, Saskatchewan spends more on health care than it collects in personal income tax and provincial sales tax. A population that has hovered at just below one million residents eat up 40% of the provincial budget - 2.2 billion in 2001.

And it’s not enough to meet demand. There are no health premiums or user fees - no patient is turned away, no matter how minor the complaint. Some of the elderly are known for their weekly visits to their family doctors for reasons no more serious than loneliness. Cost cutting is extremely difficult - the left leaning NDP governing party is tied inextricably to their unions - and everyone from floor cleaners through hospital cooks are union employees, often earning double the rate of the private sector.

Just the first sentence of the first paragraph was enough to make me cringe. The second paragraph is simply an outrage–and a good example of what we’d likely face in America if we had socialized medicine. But, of course, with all that money being spent on health care, Canadian medicine must be the best in the world, right?

Hospitals across rural Saskatchewan have been closed, forcing residents to travel hours for simple office appointments (phone calls are not billable) and pre-surgical blood tests. Beds are taken offline because of nursing shortages, low pay scales sends Canadian trained doctors to the US or larger population centers, while immigrant doctors take their place - when they can be inticed to do so. There is a chronic shortage of medical specialists.

There are only 3 MRI’s in the province. Many residents drive to neighboring Alberta to pay for private MRI diagnosis, while those in Saskatchewan are operated under the universal system for only a few hours a day to save on costs. The other operational hours are devoted to diagnosing patients under billable conditions - workers compensation, traffic insurance claims, exploding the myth that “two tier” health care is not a fact of medical care in the province.

Currently, the waiting list for an MRI in Saskatchewan is 22 months. Emergency patients go to the front of the line - but these are often emergencies because lack of early diagnosis has allowed their condition to deteriorate to life threatening status. Under the present criteria, obtaining an MRI for a suspected brain tumour is considered elective.

That’s just scary–but is that only because we’re all so used to the concept that saving a life is worth any price you have to pay?

Somebody convince me that socialized medicine would not have the immediate effect of depopulating the rural North.