Richard Cook;
“There does not seem to be any method of getting joe and josephine
to take good care of themselves possibly lowering overall healthcare costs in both countries. Would you care to comment?”
It can be difficult to legislate any sort of healthy living. Which will cost more: a man who smokes all his life and doesn’t get sick until he’s in his 70′s and dies six months later (like my grandfather) or a marathon runner who has two knee replacements by the age of 40 and then goes on to require the normal amount of health care that any senior does.
There is a lot to being sick or healthy that is genetic. Not that that removes any responsibility, it just means that people with genetic marks against them are more likely to be less healthy.
First you’d have to determine which level of government should be responsible for helping us get healthier. The provinces control health care spending, but the Canada Health Act is federal legislation. Then you have regions in each province that actually deliver the health care.
But really, getting Joe and Joesephine Canuck to take better care of themselves starts with Joe and Josephine valuing health and having them realize without a shadow of a doubt that it is NOT and should not be up to the government to take care of them regardless of their health situation.
Digression: There was a senior in Calgary who recently hit his head and went into a coma. Doctors issued a DNR (do not resuscitate) and the family disagreed, eventually getting a court order to block the DNR and allow her to get a second opinion. (Don’t forget, Canadians have to go through their current doctor to get to a specialist… if their current doctor won’t refer them, they are stuck. Obviously this man’s doctor had written him off.) The man has now recovered to the extent that he can write his name, speak and recognize family. The Calgary Health Region is still fighting the court decision because they don’t want to set a “dangerous precident”.
Sorry… back to your question…
There are very few things Canada has attempted to put into place:
Tax benefits for the parents of kids enrolled in sports. Called the “Children’s Fitness Tax Credit” of a credit up to $500 a child (http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/fitness/)
Focusing on vaccinations, getting every child they can vaccinated before Kindergarten.
Re-doing Canada’s Food Guide to “better reflect evolving eating patterns and food markets, an increasingly ethnic population and new scientific findings”. (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/nutrition/fiche-nutri-data/rationale-raison_d_etre_e.html)
Uh… that’s all I can think of. This past week someoen from the Calgary Health Region basically stated “we need you all to take care of yourselves… because we can’t do it.”
It is easiest for me to speak about Alberta, where the government pays $3695 per person per year on health care and where the wait times are the longest. Our overall unemployment is the lowest in the country and the health care staffing crisis is critical.
In Calgary, 20% of us have no family doctor (my husband included, since my older doctor doesn’t take men) and the city apparently needs 300 more physicians to remain out of a crisis situation. (http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/11/25/news/local/news05.txt)
My family is probably very typical. Busy. Two kids. Husband and Wife both working. Child care costs are high. I have a gym membership that I don’t use because I can’t find the time. With a promotion at work I find myself busier than ever and it’s tough to tear myself away for an hour to work out. And getting up in the morning? Puh-leeze… when the baby still wakes up a couple times each night I like all the sleep I can get. Then I’m sitting and writing until 11 pm or so.
What’s the solution? How can the government encourage me to be healthier? Oh, wait, gee… maybe it’s not up to the government to help me. Maybe Canadians just have to let go of that notion that the government CAN and WILL help them.
Richard: I do know Americans who are self-employed (writers) who have their own insurance. So it’s not that insurance is not portable, it’s that the insurance that is portable is wildly expensive. From my understanding.
Right now it would SEEM that the system provides basic care well, but I would have to disagree. When your doctor comes in and only talks to you for three minutes because she’s too busy … and you can’t switch doctors or get access to a specialist without having your doctor’s OK, then the system doesn’t work very well at all.
