US Healthcare vs. Canadian Healthcare, a Doctor's POV
Over the weekend, I had drinks with a few people, one of whom was a doctor with experience practicing in both Canada and the US. It's a POV I've never had direct access to, so obviously the conversation veered towards the differences between the two systems. I thought it would be a good topic for this forum to get other's thoughts/experiences. I can't remember everything from the conversation because I was drinking but here are the takeaways I remember;
- His background - born and raised in Toronto, Med school and Residency in the US, Fellowship and few years practice back in Toronto, then moved back to the US for a better paying gig. He's an Oncologist.
- The best analogy was comparing the two systems to traveling. The US system is like flying on a major airline while the Canadian system is like taking a greyhound bus. You'll get to your destination either way but the bus will take a hell of a lot longer and the service sucks. The Airline is more expensive but it's faster, the service is better and you have the choice of paying more for first class or fly coach (e.g. choosing your doctors)
- There is a major shortage of doctors in Canada which is exacerbating the wait times in ERs and for elective surgeries. The US also has a shortage but it's not as bad and US doctors almost always make more money, which attracts good doctors from Canada.
- I told him about my 1 YO son needing elective surgery on his eye to unclog a tear duct. We picked our doctor and had the surgery completed within a month. He said it would take at least a year in Canada and you couldn't pick the doctor, but it's free.
- The US system is a business. The idea that some hospitals are non-profit is laughable. He also thinks no one actually wants to cure cancer given the amount of money they make off Chemo/radiation treatments. I forgot to ask him about the quality of cancer treatment in Canada.
- The pharmaceutical companies are evil and don't give a shit about your health, LOL. I pushed him to elaborate but we veered off to something else.
- At the end of the day, both systems have their issues but they both seem to work in their own way. For him personally, he likes the US system better because his pay is 3 times what he made in Canada.
He said he could write a book comparing the two but we didn't get much further than BSing and laughing about it. None of this is groundbreaking stuff but I thought it was worth sharing. Anyone have their own take?
Hey SBPref12, I'm the WSO Monkey Bot and I am sad to say, but this thread is lonely, so thought I'd post in here to try and help out. Some potential topics that might help:
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I wish Canada had both. If I break my arm accidentally, makes sense to get me in a cast without having to pay the arm to do so.
But I’ve been having another health issue and it’s impossible to get a proper diagnosis here - been trying for almost a year and at this stage I’m telling doctors what tests I want to do based on research I’m doing. At this point I would pay a lot of money to see some specialist without waiting months who could actually figure this out.
I want to say the UK offers both solutions. You can do the NHS gov't level, or engage Cadillac mode and pay for your own private care. Please correct me if I'm wrong? The US also does something very similar, at least for emergency situations. There's nothing to stop you from calling 911 and getting an ambo to the county hospital for immediate treatment and then branching off from there. There'll still be a bill, but you'll hopefully be alive to worry about that later.
As for specialists and MDs? I have less than 50% trust in them even with the "pay to play" model considering four different specialists gave me three different wrong opinions/diagnoses and it took the PRN to actually provide the proper diagnosis in the end and the last doctor just agreed with her, hence why he "got it right".
I think you mean Jaguar mode.
Does the system in France do this as well? I don't know much about it, but I've read in multiple places how it's consistently ranked as one of the best and most efficient systems. Would be curious for any French monkeys to confirm.
"The US also has a shortage but it's not as bad and US doctors almost always make more money, which attracts good doctors from Canada."
I'm pretty sure it's fairly comparable (even without adjusting for COL) vs. working in a busy metro area in the States (radiologists make around ~$400K in both countries). Near impossible to get competitive specialties in Canada if you're a medical student there though. Fresh out of residency, US has way better job prospects.
One of my siblings is a doctor and looked into moving to Canada (SO was from Toronto and they were contemplating moving up there). A lot of American doctors who made the transition said the pay was similar and the overhead / headache of liability was far better in Canada. Unfortunately some of the cooler specialties have terrible job prospects over there though (orthopedic residents have hard time getting full time gigs after graduating there while in the States, they can start making 500K+ without fellowship relatively easily even in big cities).
I've spent tons of time living in both countries.
American healthcare is great if you are running a maxed out plan like I am with everything covered end to end but it's $12,000 USD per year and excludes a few pre-existing conditions.
For the avg person, public healthcare is way, way better.
Most of the people at our US production facilities have insane medical debt that really isn't fair.
BTW, my taxes as a Canadian are much lower than my American co-founder. :)
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