CORY'S RANT： The refusal to accept that Canada’s health care system is broken.
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
191.96501
Summary
Healthcare is in short supply across Canada, and it's getting worse by the day. Is it because of the UCP government? Or is it because we need to spend more money to fix it? In this episode, we take a look at the root cause of the problem and try to find a solution.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
The Alberta Medical Association is sounding the alarm bells due to a shortage of doctors in the province.
00:00:04.920
Yes, the emergency rooms are filling up with patients with minor ailments due to a lack of family doctors in many areas.
00:00:11.920
Of course, throughout the story, it was implied that the hostile UCP policies have caused doctors to flee the province for other jurisdictions,
00:00:20.580
They use the term invest, of course, but it's spend, and we have to spend it right away if we're going to stop this problem.
00:00:28.220
Healthcare is always the top issue in provincial elections, and it appears that things are getting worse.
00:00:35.920
So, in doing a short search of the term doctor shortage province by province, news stories in every province sounded exactly the same.
00:00:43.600
Every province in Canada is running low on doctors, in fact, in health professionals in general.
00:00:49.700
If Alberta's UCP is indeed driving medical professionals out of the province, they apparently aren't going to the other provinces.
00:00:55.180
I mean, it is believable that many of them are leaving the country for greener pastures, though.
00:00:59.880
The world market for medical professionals is competitive.
00:01:03.400
Many countries with less restrictive healthcare systems than ours have been actively headhunting for medical professionals here.
00:01:09.920
So, can we pay enough, though, to keep medical professionals from leaving?
00:01:14.600
I mean, labor makes up the majority of healthcare spending, a lion's share of it.
00:01:18.440
Even small salary increases across the board can blow up a healthcare budget.
00:01:23.400
And while there still might be room to compensate healthcare professionals more, we can only spend so much.
00:01:29.260
Are we spending enough on healthcare, though, in general?
00:01:32.220
Well, if you listen to unions and public healthcare advocates, you know, you think we're not.
00:01:37.200
But the budget statistics tell a different tale.
00:01:39.900
Healthcare spending has been steadily increasing in every province in Canada for years.
00:01:43.780
Spending spiked in the last two years due to the pandemic, of course.
00:01:48.080
In 2021, the national per capita amount being spent on healthcare was $8,019.
00:01:56.780
Ten years prior to that, in 2011, it was $5,806.
00:02:05.500
We can't pretend that we aren't spending enough on healthcare.
00:02:09.140
And spending that much per capita, Canada spends more on healthcare than most countries in the developed world.
00:02:13.480
Yet our outcomes are lagging by just about every measure.
00:02:16.780
Access is abysmal, and people are literally dying on waiting lists.
00:02:20.380
Medical specialists, in particular, are in short supply everywhere.
00:02:24.200
So, if we can't spend our way out of the problem, maybe it's time we stop trying to and examine the system itself.
00:02:32.080
Canada's created a mythology around its healthcare system and spent decades tirelessly telling us we have the best system on Earth.
00:02:38.900
The CBC dedicated an entire game show to determining who the best Canadian ever was,
00:02:43.900
and it was handily won by Tommy Douglas for founding our healthcare system.
00:02:47.940
Whenever anybody dares to question the system in Canada, they're labeled as a blasphemer,
00:02:52.020
and horror stories of the heartless American system are sure to follow.
00:02:56.300
What the stalwarts defending the status quo with Canada's healthcare system refuse to acknowledge is
00:03:00.580
there's hundreds of healthcare systems on Earth, and dozens of them offer universal coverage better than we do and for less money.
00:03:08.740
We can't let people keep shouting down any discussion of systemic reform if we want to see improvements.
00:03:14.980
Anybody who's been in a position of employing people knows that while good compensation levels are essential in retaining good staff,
00:03:20.700
the work environment itself is critical as well.
00:03:23.100
If people are stressed, underappreciated, or overwhelmed, they're going to leave.
00:03:26.660
And this is happening in healthcare, and since spending more money won't fix it, we need to change how we do it.
00:03:34.220
It's hard to say, though, how bad it's going to have to get before people are ready to pursue changes to the system.
00:03:39.620
But when we double health spending, when our waiting lists truly become the longest on Earth,
00:03:44.380
we're on a trajectory to meet both of those metrics right now.
00:03:47.800
Sustainability is a popular buzzword these days.
00:03:50.200
Well, let's apply it to our healthcare system and add a dose of reality.
00:03:52.940
Our system right now is rigid, inefficient, and unsustainable, and we need to make radical changes to it.
00:03:59.760
Until we do, those healthcare headlines that look the same across the country about the shortages won't be going away anytime soon.