In Toronto recently, Clinton warned Canadians away from the U.S. health care model:
The answer to Canada's health-care woes does not lie in the "insane" system in place south of the border, former U.S. president Bill Clinton said last night.
Speaking in Toronto, Mr. Clinton said that reform may be needed in Canada, but he argued forcefully that the U.S. model is a "colossal waste of money" that is "killing" his country competitively.
"It's a good thing, your health care system, with all of its problems," Mr. Clinton told supporters of the inaugural World Leaders Forum [...]
Mr. Clinton said that he was familiar with the Chaoulli decision of the Supreme Court of Canada, in which the justices ruled that the public system was too slow and struck down a Quebec prohibition on private health insurance. Arguing that the United States had made a mess of health care, he encouraged Canadians to study instead how other countries have tackled these issues. [...]
Mr. Clinton, who failed in his own attempt to overhaul the U.S. health-care system during his presidency, pointed out that the portion of health costs spent on administration in the United States is nearly twice that of any other industrialized nation.
Our own experiences with the Canadian system have been uniformly positive. We spoke about our initial experience here, and we continue to find socialized medicine efficient, inexpensive, and humane.
For example, a few days ago, we went to an emergency walk-in clinic. Not fancy, but servicable: a waiting room, an administrative office, and an examining room. It took about 5 minutes to see the doctor. A relatively high-tech test was performed, and all was well. For some reason we hadn't yet received our OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) cards yet (more on this shortly), so had to pay out of pocket. The bill: $25 Canadian.
[UPDATE: Reader CO informs me that the situation is different at hospital emergency rooms, where without an OHIP card you can expect to pay a base cost of around $500.]
As it turns out, our OHIP cards hadn't arrived because in order to
get them we had to apply at the local Ministry of Health (a
communication mishap). We went in today. We spent about 1 minute in
line before we were at a desk talking with a competent person, who gave
us a simple form to fill out and directed us to another competent
person, who looked at our work permits and house lease, asked us a
couple of questions, took our pictures and gave us temporary OHIP
passes (cards to be mailed shortly). The whole process took about ten
minutes; so much for the supposed inefficiency of government
administration.
It gets better. For the last months, while we were supposedly waiting for our cards, we've paid various small sums out of pocket for medical expenses. I asked the Ministry of Health person what our chances were of getting reimbursed; she responded that she was backdating our cards to last November (when we would have initially qualified for them) for this purpose. An immediate rational response to the financial benefit of the consumer: can you imagine that happening in a for-profit health care system?
One of the unexpected pleasures of being in Canada is the feeling of happy surprise that comes from being treated in such contexts as a person, as opposed to an entry on a corporation balance sheet. That alone will probably add years to my life.
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