Canada's Health Care System

Health Care System or Illness Treatment Program?
Sociology 1000
October 1, 2010

Canada’s Health Care system is gradually growing to be a major concern in today’s society. Many Canadians are without a doctor to help them, and emergency rooms are filled to capacity with no available beds for those who need to be admitted. Wait times for specialists and specialty tests have become so long that a person that has been diagnosed with a serious illness may succumb to that illness before they can be properly treated. Nurses are overworked and understaffed because the government has made cut-backs to the very system that was designed to protect the health of every citizen. Doctors cannot be trained quickly enough to accommodate the population,…show more content…
This statement is backed up by records that indicate that “at least 160,000 medical services or treatments were performed on Canadians outside the country over the past 3 years, most in the United States” (Hinds, 2010, p. E255). This number, however, is only an estimate as most provinces either do not differentiate between out-of-province and out-of-country, or they do not record services that were obtained without prior approval. One study showed that “the waiting time for a 65-year-old Canadian male to get a routine hip replacement is more than 6 months” (Hoar, 2004, p. 1). However, the same study showed that the wait time for the same surgery in the United States was less than three weeks. Perhaps one of the reasons Canadians travel south for medical services is because it is illegal to buy immediate health services. Hoar (2004) states that “If the Canadian government says it provides a particular medical service, it is illegal for a Canadian citizen to pay for and obtain that service privately. At the same time, the Canadian government bureaucracy rations medical services” (p. 1). It becomes clear, then, why Canadians would elect to have procedures done across the border. While most elective procedures are not covered, most provinces will pay for emergency services and elective services not offered in Canada. However, those…show more content…
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