Health Care Mandates (ACA) Ensures Decline in Care

Want to get a good idea what ObamaCare will look like in the near future, just read the following article on how Canada is doing under a similar system of 'single payer'. According to Mr Obama, this is his idea for America, something that he said back in 2007 to a congregation of labor union individuals.

Obama said he knew it won't be easy, but he would have to start off slowly changing the health care system, and then once he has the proper base set of individuals needing health care don't have any, he would be able to institute his vision of 'single payer' health care. All aspect of health care would fall under the watchful eye of the central government.

Given this all took place in 2007, one would think that it would be enough time for the ramifications of a single payer health care system to be understood and how it will change the quality of the system we have now. But it didn't matter, it seems a majority of the population is ready for decline in all aspect of their lives which single payer will be the driving force.

Decline, dependency and then poverty is the new norm. Voters last November decided they were good with that. Smaller pay checks, higher deductibles, food and energy costs out of control and substandard health care. Where will you turn for relief? How many even understand what they voted for is designed to put them into a downward spiral in their quality of life?

Waiting Your Turn
December 14, 2012
Source: Bacchus Barua and Nadeem Esmail, "Waiting Your Turn," Fraser Institute, December 2012.

The Fraser Institute has released the results of its survey of waiting times for elective medical treatments in Canada.

• Specialist physicians surveyed across 12 specialties and 10 Canadian provinces reported an average waiting time of 17.7 weeks between general practitioner referral and the elective treatment.
• Wait times for referral by general practitioner and consultation with a specialist fell to 8.5 weeks from 9.5 weeks one year ago.
• There was an estimated 870,462 people waiting for procedures across all 10 provinces.
• Assuming each person waits to have only one procedure done, that means 2.5 percent of Canadians were waiting for treatment.
• However, the report shows 10.3 percent of patients were on the waiting list because they chose to wait.

It should also be noted that there is substantial variation in wait times between provinces and the different specialties.

• Ontario, for example, report an average wait time of 14.9 weeks.
• However, New Brunswick reports an average of 35.1 weeks.
• As far as specialties, patients report the longest wait time between referral and orthopedic surgery, at 39.6 weeks.
• But those waiting for oncology treatment wait only about 4.1 weeks.

While the report does show that wait times are decreasing overall for Canadians, it still highlights that wait times are at a historic level. Many physicians agree that the wait times go far beyond what would be considered reasonable.
From an economic point of view, these wait times represent a large loss of economic output.

• The cost of waiting for treatments such as total joint replacement, cataract surgery, coronary artery bypass and MRI scans was an estimated $14.8 billion in 2007.
• In 2010, the cost of waiting per patient was an additional $1,144.
• As a result of dealing with long wait lines, 0.9 percent of patients opted to receive treatments in another country.