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Canadian Citizens can bring Solution
Our primary ethical obligation is to relieve and prevent human suffering. What is the solution to this ethical crisis? I believe that it lies in the community of Canadians realizing that we are one. We are the family caregiver who can’t find a doctor. We are the patient who cannot demand faster care for fear of falling further back in the line. We are the physician who feels s/he can’t retire for fear of leaving patients without a family doctor. We are the nurse who can bring pain medication, but not treatment. We are the worried bureaucrat who knows that the numbers spell doom. We are the torn politician who knows privately how bad it is, but cannot have a public conversation. We are one.
Together, we can acknowledge that no amount of money will keep up with the twin forces of technological possibilities and human expectations. And then we can get down to work on the discomforting yet critical job of redesigning a healthcare system that is universal, compassionate and affordable. No politician or healthcare expert can do it for us. Those choices must come from us, the citizens who will use and pay for the service. In our hands lie both the responsibility and the solution.
We have hard work ahead of us. First, we have to sadly, but surely release the myth of Tommy Douglas. It never worked long term anyway. Back then, medical care consisted of a small number of lab tests, diagnostics consisting predominantly of an Xray machine, and a modest selection of drugs. Today we can rescue premature babies weighing less than a pound, analyze your genetics and offer designer drugs. It is time to choose which healthcare services Canadians want their tax dollars to pay for and which services can be secured through different arrangements. Do we want serious illness tax funded and the day to day sniffles paid for with private insurance premiums, subsidized for those below a certain income level? Do we want every person to have a tax paid health care account wherein they continue to accumulate unspent funds?
There are many ways to achieve affordable quality healthcare for all. We are one. We are caring, inventive Canadians. We can do this. Let us not look to our politicians for answers. Let us gather across this great country and talk amongst ourselves and then direct our politicians with the solutions.
1 comment
You made a lot of sense, but the task ahead is so overwhelming and inexplicable that I compliment you on your research.
I was a nurse educator and had thirty five years in the system of perioperative nursing, doing my own research.
When I attended UNB, I took an interest in studying the hcs's of Canada, USA and Great Britain. I tried to personally tackle and bring forward the problems with our Health Care System, but my career came to an abrupt halt.
How can you have a socialized HCS when so many physicians can write their own pay checks without any controls.
Capping their salaries does not work as the docs just take off to florida for two or three months when they have reached that cap.
If docs tell patients to come back every week they do,"doctor's orders" and this is also a shame. Doctors and prescription drugs take up too much of our health care costs, with bad results, addictions, decreased physical health and higher mortality rates.
There is no accountability, any other insurance company would be bankrupt. This gouging by physicians with worse outcomes is going to destroy our system.
My solution is to pay a Salary to all doctors who are in our socialized system and let the others have a private business if they want fee for service...
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