OT FOR a report in college about healthcare.

Hi my name is dee I am doing a english paper and it has to be on micheal moores movie sicko. In the movie he say the healthcare is awesome in canada. You don't have long waits and you get your healthcare for free. I was wondering how true it was. I have a few questions about that. 1. how long does it take to see a dr. 2. are there any fees. 3. how long for a surgery simple or serious? 4. Do you think it is a good working system? any imput would be so great! thanks again dee

Mr Moore is way off base re the Canadian Medicare system. There are long wait lists to get a family doctor- months. If you go to the E.R. it is not unheard of to wait 12 to 18 hours. On the other hand, if you are seriously ill, you would go to the front of the line. But if you are there because you have the flu or need stitches, bring your "blankie" because you are in for a long wait. The wait times have increased because the shortage of doctors forces people without a doctor to go to the E.R. for routine things. There are no fees in this province, but each province administers it's own Medicare system. Some provinces have tried having a user fee to limit use of the E.R. only to find that the collection system cost more to run than it generates in revenue and has little or no effect on usage. Also richer provinces provide more coverage than poorer provinces. Doctors need a billing number from the province and the area they must practice is a stipulation with that number. The idea is to have doctors settle in rural areas, but us urbanites are suffering too. Wait for service- I have been waiting 2 years for an appointment with a specialist who may or may not apply to Medicare to fund bariatric surgery for me. I am told that since I am not urgent, I have another year to wait. I will have to wait 3 to 5 years for surgery if I am approved.This is in part because there is only one surgeon serving 3 provinces. If my case were urgent then I would have seen the specialist within weeks or if life threatening, immediately. The wait times for elective surgery, like a knee replacement, can be long (up to a couple of years). The more urgent the procedure the faster you receive the service. Our doctors are paid far less than US doctors plus it is not unusual to work an 80 hour week. I wonder why young doctors are going south of the border!! The up side of Medicare is that rich and poor have the same access to services. The really rich can go to the US for services because they can afford to pay. I am an upper middle class professional but I have had some very serious illnesses and if I had to pay, I would have been bankrupt several times over. Cost is not a consideration in the decision to proceed with any treatment, Everyone can afford cancer treatment. While I would not be surprised to learn that there have been deaths related to waiting, emergency treatment is usually immediate. Our system is seriously short of cash. No it is not a good working system, but it used to be and it is better than a "you pay or sorry you will not receive treatment" system. So much as we complain about Medicare, we Canadians also love our Medicare and the principles behind it. Hope this is helpful.