This week, we talk about the latest on the wildfires in Alberta and BC, and the weird things we've been seeing in the past week. Plus, we're joined by our news editor, Dave Naylor, to talk about all the latest in the news.
00:13:30.880$100 for a year, and you get past that paywall, and it supports people like Dave and Jen and Sean and just so many folks working here at the Western Standard.
00:13:40.400Jonathan up there, getting those stories out to you.
00:13:43.740And, yeah, if you haven't subscribed yet, get on there.
00:13:47.520And if you have already, hey, I really, really appreciate it.
00:14:15.240But in reality, I mean, I show those pictures on my game cam all the time.
00:14:18.780They're all over the place in Critice, yet attacks on people virtually never happen.
00:14:23.720And when you think there's thousands of cougars out there, thousands and thousands of people going into the woods every day and they aren't getting attacked.
00:14:29.200As scary as those animals are, you shouldn't lose too much sleep over them because typically they're just not into eating folks.
00:14:43.100And it reflects some of the tension going on in the world and everywhere.
00:14:47.140A number of factors are coming together there.
00:14:49.660It shows the problems with a mob, right?
00:14:53.620When the government, your people don't feel that the government is protecting them enough, if they aren't doing justice, then citizens stand up and they will take care of it themselves.
00:16:27.580And it'll be a heck of a lot uglier than a controlled way of dealing with having new people in nations and having them integrate and get along.
00:16:34.900Okay, let's get to our guest there, Colin Craig of secondstreet.org.
00:16:38.220Because they put out a documentary recently.
00:16:40.100And it's fantastic, actually, especially if you're concerned about health care.
00:17:10.280We, of course, start off with the problem.
00:17:12.360Just showing people a very important point.
00:17:16.560And that is that money is not the solution.
00:17:18.280We've been doing that, trying that for decades now.
00:17:21.280It doesn't matter if you talk about conservative governments, liberal, NDP.
00:17:24.820People always try and politicize this.
00:17:27.360Governments across the political spectrum in different parts of the country, federal level, provincial level, they've all tried throwing money at the system and crossing their fingers and hoping for something to work out.
00:17:37.500And yet the results just keep getting worse and worse and worse.
00:17:41.100And, you know, one of the other points we make right off the hop is that we've got a lot of good people working in the system.
00:18:10.700There's lots of other countries around the world that do what Canadians like.
00:18:14.340And that's the idea that everyone in the country is covered.
00:18:17.880You're not going to face a big bill when you walk out after having a heart procedure or hip operation or whatever.
00:18:24.040So there's lots of other countries that do what we want to do, and they're doing it much better than us.
00:18:29.560So the bulk of the video looks at some of the things they're doing differently.
00:18:34.100And we go through about five different policy options that we could embrace here in Canada and then start to see better results like what we're quite often seeing in Europe.
00:18:44.300Yeah, and to start right off, I mean, that's where we get some confusion.
00:18:47.560We get some defenders of the status quo, a couple of things.
00:18:51.200For one, they like to pretend that Canada and the United States are the only systems on Earth, and that's absolutely untrue.
00:18:56.420But the biggest fear people have, I think the principle that most people share, they want a universal system.
00:19:01.380They want to make sure everybody's covered no matter what.
00:19:04.200You're not going to get turned away from a hospital or bankrupted because you got injured or you were diagnosed with cancer or a disease that required a lot of treatment.
00:19:11.660But if you can make people comfortable that they're going to have universal coverage, we shouldn't be afraid then in examining ways on how to provide the care while maintaining the coverage.
00:19:36.060They want quality treatment, and they want it in a timely manner.
00:19:39.400I would say that those are the top three things that Canadian patients really want.
00:19:44.080And if that's your goal as a nation, we can start to look at other models like Sweden and France and Australia and Japan and other countries because, you know, they're doing those types of – they're meeting those objectives.
00:20:44.300And that is good for patients if governments are willing to fund whoever it is to provide care in a cost-effective manner, a safe manner, a way that ultimately benefits patients.
00:20:54.380And, you know, we see some of this in Canada already, I mean, family doctors or private businesses, you go in, you meet with your family doctor, you leave.
00:21:02.640And then when you're done, that doctor's office will build a government.
00:21:07.220Sometimes x-rays, blood tests will be done in private facilities, but people don't even know it.
00:21:12.660So it's the idea is to maybe expand and do some other services to surgeries and other health procedures.
00:21:20.460And then we could get some better bang for a buck.
00:21:22.360One of the other things, Corey, that we talked about in the documentary is sort of changing how governments fund health care.
00:21:29.280So right now, quite often what they do is they will cut a big check to a hospital and say, good luck.
00:21:35.480You know, here at Foothills Hospital in Calgary, here's $200 million or whatever it is.
00:21:39.860You know, we hope you can help a lot of patients this year.
00:21:42.620And that's not a very effective way of funding health care.
00:21:45.120So what they often do in other nations, we were just in France and they do it there, is they will fund health facilities every time they help a patient.
00:21:54.160So they have a formula to say, okay, for a knee replacement, we're going to spend, say, whatever it is, $10,000.
00:21:59.200So now that facility has the incentive to try and do a lot of knee surgeries, because then every time they do it, they're going to get more money.
00:22:09.420We don't have that incentive right now in our health care system.
00:22:13.620Every time a patient comes in, the budget gets smaller and smaller and smaller.
00:22:16.900And then at the end of the year, the facilities often go, well, sorry, you're going to have to wait until next year.
00:22:22.520We don't have any money to do more knee surgeries.
00:22:25.540So it's not very effective the way that we do it.
00:22:27.940Changing that incentive model is one way that, another way, rather, that we can get better bang for our buck in the health care system.
00:22:35.780Well, and if we could get over our hangups, get over the ideology and allow people to shop around, aside from changing the model to make it better for a hospital,
00:22:43.240if a hospital is overwhelmed or if it turns out that a patient can get service, this is something that's happening in Europe, and I believe you pointed out,
00:22:50.640they can go to a country next door, get this comparable service done, and have it paid for by the system through that.
00:22:59.100Because the bottom line is, if the state's paying for the procedure, it doesn't really matter where it's getting done,
00:23:04.560as long as it gets done in a reasonable manner and efficiently.
00:23:09.000It opens a lot of doors for people to examine different ways to get the job done.
00:25:12.720It's not acceptable in a developed nation like ours.
00:25:14.980So we desperately need to be looking at health reform options to get patients the care they need.
00:25:20.180So one of the other, you know, when it was debated a lot when we talk about, say, having private facilities, providing services, things like that, even if we can prove that, you know, it would keep the doctors here.
00:25:31.420Some people say, well, then the people paying to jump the line will take up all of the time of the professionals and these private facilities will take all of the best and brightest and people in the public system will be left with the dregs and second rate care.
00:25:47.420What would prevent that from happening?
00:25:48.840Well, if we think about the end point, I think we have to ask a question.
00:25:53.280How is it that Sweden can make that work where patients have a choice between the public system or private options if they want to pay privately?
00:26:01.700And in Sweden, by the way, most people use the public system.
00:26:28.260And when your viewers are hearing this claim from people that don't want health reform, they don't want choice, they say the sky will fall.
00:26:36.980I would urge them to think, well, wait a second.
00:26:39.080And why would those people be saying that when we know it can be done in other countries?
00:26:44.460Either they're defeatists or they have some kind of ulterior motive.
00:26:48.100And, you know, in many cases, it's they have a monopoly.
00:27:22.140So it doesn't matter if a patient chooses to go to a private facility or a public one or whatever.
00:27:27.480The government's going to pay for that procedure at a rate of X, whatever the procedure is and how much they've figured out they're going to pay.
00:27:35.240So there's definitely different ways that you can do it.
00:27:39.000I think it's an important consideration if you're going to be giving patients choices to make sure that there is that capacity in the public system, but also giving patients options.
00:27:48.380And one thing I think to keep in mind is that we will so often ration access to care in Canada.
00:27:57.180So that means ultimately that if you're a surgeon, your income potential may only be this much because that's as much as the government is willing to fund for you to do, say, knee surgeries each year.
00:28:08.060And often these knee surgeons have time on their hands.
00:28:12.600They'll be twiddling their thumbs because they can only do so much.
00:28:15.100That's all the government's going to let them do.
00:28:18.240Well, if you give them the option of working privately too, then they might be able to supplement their income and make more.
00:28:24.340So if they're earning this much, they might be thinking, well, I'm going to move to the U.S. because I can make this much.
00:28:30.560But if in Canada we give them that opportunity to supplement their income in the private sector, then they can earn more here and maybe they stay here instead of leaving our country.
00:28:39.660So I think you might actually see the opposite.
00:28:42.200When you give health care workers more options and ways to make money, then more people are going to decide to stay in Canada.
00:28:50.500And I believe the French model is a lot like that.
00:28:52.320They have private hospitals and it's regulated.
00:28:55.160You know, it's got to be whatever, 60 or 70 percent has to be in the public system.
00:28:58.060But the other 30 percent, hey, use those hallways, use those specialists, however you will.
00:29:03.320And that way the doctor can buy his yacht through the people who want to pay extra, perhaps from other countries bringing money in.
00:29:09.600You keep the specialist there and the public can get that top level doctor as opposed to potentially losing them in a public system when we're in an international market.
00:29:18.720I mean, there's a lot of countries that will reach out and get a hold of that cardiac surgeon or that orthopedic surgeon or that oncologist.
00:29:25.380I mean, we have to get pragmatic here.
00:29:34.760We walked through a government run hospital that was actually run pretty well.
00:29:38.640And that's because of the activity based funding.
00:29:40.500They changed the incentive model in terms of how that hospital receives money.
00:29:43.740So they were starting to do all kinds of innovative things.
00:29:46.460We walked into a large room where there were all these patients and it was a room for them to wake up in after they've had surgery and their anesthetic wears off.
00:30:27.520So, you know, that changed because the government changed the incentive model.
00:30:31.680So you start to see more innovation, more good ideas coming from the grassroots up.
00:30:35.420So, yeah, there's a lot of ways where we can learn from these European countries and find ways to deliver health care more cost effectively.
00:30:46.500We walked through and met with people that were running a government-owned hospital.
00:30:52.440So the government owned the hospital, but it was a private company that managed it.
00:30:56.720And that private company was able to deliver health services, same quality, but for a lower cost, somewhere between 15% and 30% lower, depending on the calculation and, you know, different people's understandings of what's going on.
00:31:11.520But, yeah, I mean, we should be taking overall a less ideological approach to health care, like I say, partner with whoever can help patients.
00:31:19.120Because I think patients, at the end of the day, they just want that quality care in a timely manner.
00:31:31.860So maybe, you know, people can just shed some of the ingrained prejudices or things that they were kind of trained to think the Canadian system is and just start looking at maybe we can do things better.
00:31:41.100So before I let you go, I mean, of course, where are you going to find this documentary when folks sit down to watch it?
00:31:46.620Yeah, so people can watch it for free if they go to healthreformnow.ca.
00:31:51.000That's the name of the documentary, Health Reform Now.
00:32:44.200We've got to change the way people think about these things.
00:32:47.380You know, the problem, the problem, one of the, so many problems.
00:32:50.800But one of the things he's been pointing out is a monopoly.
00:32:52.800Now, here's where the left and the right can kind of both be correct sometimes in pointing out when the citizen, the consumer, the person at the bottom is getting screwed.
00:33:04.560And it's almost always a monopoly situation.
00:33:07.100But we've got to remember, a government monopoly will screw you.
00:33:19.240It doesn't matter who's got the monopoly.
00:33:21.080If there is one standing over you, you aren't going to have a good time.
00:33:24.800When it's something as important as health care, it's no wonder we're getting horrific service because there's only one manager, only one provider.
00:34:01.740Speaking of which, you know, speaking of governments and how inefficient they are, for people who watch Calgary News and things out here, the green line.
00:34:07.560I just like ranting about that one because this is a beauty.
00:34:10.560This is an LRT, light rail transit, expansion.
00:34:14.280They've been talking about it for like 16, 17 years in Calgary.
00:39:05.260I mean, one of the experiments I remember as a kid in Banff in the 80s, because, again, the granolas got all worked up because they found out that we spray around Banff every spring for mosquitoes.
00:39:13.180All the wet spots, the marshes, the swamps, they sprayed them.
00:39:22.840If you go to the mountains outside of the areas where they spray, you'll discover just how many black flies, horse flies, and mosquitoes there are out there.
00:39:42.340We've got towns, communities in the Boreal Forest across the entire country, and a lot of them are tinderboxes right now, and we need to take care of that.
00:39:53.320Before I get to Sean to talk about some things, I've got him in as well, just to dance on a grave.
00:40:00.240I think this was one of Sean's stories anyways.
00:40:02.180But, yes, Chorus Entertainment, speaking of companies that won't evolve, companies that won't change with the times, they're the ones who run global news and a lot of the radio stations and things like that.
00:40:44.520Yeah, because having somebody come on every 10 minutes with a static-filled report on what's happening in one segment of the city is much more important.
00:40:51.540And so, you know, maybe just picking up your phone and checking Google.
00:41:08.640And he'll cut another check so these guys can hang in there, do more DEI hires, and continue to make broadcasts that nobody wants to watch or listen to.
00:42:29.200You know, even though we're competitors, we're mostly always friends when we show up on the news sites and at the pressers and the kind of things that I went to all week this week.
00:42:37.940Well, and that's what gets frustrating, though.
00:42:39.480These jobs could be saved, maybe, if they could just look at these organizations and restructure them in a pragmatic way rather than just continuing down kind of a road of foolishness.