Everytime I’ve taken the ferry from Port Angeles, WA to Victoria, BC I’ve had conversations with Canadians who are coming to the US to escape the long wait times in Canadian hospitals. I’ve also talked to Americans who are going to Canada to get cheaper medicines.
I live in Germany and we have a mix of public and private healthcare that works just fine. Healthcare is still universal but you have a choice between publicly funded and privately funded coverage. The public health coverage is also not run by the government but by independent non-profit insurance houses. You can choose between different providers both within the public and private system. The private hospitals work with public providers as well. It's a lot more decentralized than the Canadian or (especially) UK system but still manages to provide a very high level of care.
@@JJMcCullough You can only opt for the private healthcare if you are self-employed, are a public servant or earn above €67k a year. Once you go private, it is VERY difficult to go back to public. The bad side of public healthcare is that your choice of appointment times is usually more limited and you don't get perks e.g. nicer beds or TV or WiFi in hospitals. The downside of the private system is that your rates are risk-based. So the older and sicker you get, the more you have to pay. Also, if private, you usually have to pay in advance out of pocket and get reimbursed by the insurance. This is very problematic for the old and sick. This is exactly why the system is one-way, to prevent using cheap private insurance while young and healthy and later switching to public when old and sick.
Thank you for educating Canadians that the alternative doesn’t have to be “American-style”. Im a Canadian that lived and worked in Germany for years. Very good 2-tier system that provides excellent care to all. Excellent health services to support new mothers, too.
As a type 1 diabetic my anger for the US system and emphasis of profits over patients. I’m okay with paying for my insulin but I’m tired of being charged $400 (up from $150 when I was diagnosed) for a drug that cost $1 to make and hasn’t changed. Canada isn’t perfect clearly. But I wouldn’t be broke because of my lifelong illness.
In Sweden, you can only pay at max 3600 SEK (350 USD) per year for medication; everything after that is covered by taxes, since it's deemed that you actually need it. It's a way to avoid people abusing a free system, by forcing everyone to pay a certain amount; an amount most people would prefer to avoid.
What type of insulin do you use? I'm interested in this topic but I'm not a diabetic. Are there different varieties and generics vs name brand and newer vs older?
Seems to me that the US has the worst of both worlds: Enough government regulation and meddling to keep competition from lowering prices, but not enough to keep prices low directly.
@@paulhamrick3943 There are many different delivery methods; some of the newer autoinjector types operate similar to a prodrug, in that they're slowly released into the body without needing additional doses throughout the day. Those tend to be more expensive due to lasting patents, but the basic "vial of insulin" that many Americans rely so dearly on is still laughably cheap to produce yet sold for $10+/dose.
@@paulhamrick3943 to clarify I am using an insulin pump that uses short term acting insulin here in the USA the common brands are Novolog and Humalog. (Basically identical) I use Humalog currently which is produced by Lilly. -in addition that pump I own costs 10k to purchase plus an additional 6-7k for a CGM system. And all of the ongoing purchases you need for those supplies.
Specialized doctors in Canada can also decline your referral if they deem your problem “not serious enough”. Imagine waiting for months to hear back from a clinic after your GP referred you, only to learn that they are not going to see you. Happened to me twice
I didnt even know that. Canadian system is terrible. I say this as a Canadian myself. Living in South Korea I can walk into any specialist office without an appointment and pay just a few dollars with the government paying most of the tab. Not free but not expensive. Also very fast. A mixed system I guess. Private and public. Sorry to hear about your difficulties.
My problem has been I can't get a GP to listen to me long enough to even consider a referral to a specialist. They literally have no interest in preventative medicine. You have to be obviously sick to get anywhere in the system.
@@kellycarter4944 yes sadly. I think doctors and medical staff must be under budgetary pressure to avoid medical tests or referrals. It is rationing. It's not like they can fired or sued for bad service or medical treatment. Canada's medical system is broken and 100 per cent free is not 100 per cent quality. I don't mind paying a small amount over here to go to specialists directly and to get fast service.
@@jamessullivan6031 so is Canada's paid by taxes but free to the user in the sense you pay no fees at the time. Either way bad service, shortages, long waits, rationing, etc.
A supply issue with surgeons in a country like Canada, is primarily a price controls issue. Going to the ER for non-emergencies is exacerbated by the generally poor service schedules of clinics: Canada's health insurance systems have failed to enable the much more efficient surgery centers and urgent care centers that are common in more functional systems. If you are scheduled for a surgery, you end up in an emergency hospital. If you need a doctor to write you a prescription for an ear antibiotic because you got a double ear infection in Lake Huron... but it's the weekend, or it's after about 6PM, too bad, you end up at an emergency department.
A centralized system would undoubtedly yield more consistently positive results; delegating it to the provinces did nothing but create over a dozen different healthcare systems that are all less efficient than they could be. (Also sets the stage for provinces saying raising pay for doctors would just negatively impact other provinces.)
Bold of you to assume we can even go see a doctor if it's b4 6 pm. I've been on a waiting list to get a doctor for 3 years, and according to the gov, I might get one in 5 years. And I'm on the priority list due to a chronic issue
Very brave of JJ to make this video, considering his audience leans strongly to the left, and is a bit on the anti American side. This doesn't even mention that most of the world takes American medical advancements to improve their systems, meaning if there was no US, their systems would be worse. I think there are things the US and European nations can learn from each other in healthcare, although I would point out that it is much easier to administer a collectivized system in nations that where the population is much closer together. That being said, I am definitely open to making American healthcare more European. It's just that for me the jury is still out on whether American or European style healthcare is better, as it seems that depending on your focus, relating to quality of care, costs and wait time would affect how you answer it. I'd also just say that, and this might be going a little deep here, the US' place as the world's most powerful and influential nation plays a role in how this topic is discussed, both within the US (between opposing sides) and outside of the US. Because of the US' status as top dog in influence, power, and in achievements and might in many things, many countries (particularly Western countries, which are more culturally similar and thus feel more of a rivalry with US) in response have seized on issues that the US either ostensibly has, or actually has, and displays openly, as a way to tell their population "see, you don't have to feel overawed about the US' position relative to our country because of..." Not to trivialize the problems that would fall under this category, but most of them are problems that other nations have as well or things that are exaggerated to be in the US compared to other countries (any level of racism, sexism etc) by the US media, which leans left, so will emphasize them both for views and to advance their narrative. Or they are things that the US actually doesn't do worse than other nations but is simplified and misrepresented by foreign nations and/or people in the US themselves to make them think that they do, or are things that are a function of having a much larger, more diverse, heterogeneous and spread out population than other Western countries. The ironic thing is that foreigners constantly complain about Americans lacking specific knowledge of their countries or making generalizations, while they themselves make generalizations and lack knowledge of the US. But what they do is worse, because they are much more exposed to the US, American media, way of life etc than vice versa. And the left and media in America plays into this for a few reasons; The media likes attention grabbing stories. And many Americans, of any persuasion, do have a sense that they are the center of the world, so any major events in the US are widely broadcast everywhere. And people like to make grand statements with "America is" as the prefix, because the fact that the US is so influential in the world will make their statement, whether wrong or right, carry weight. The US is almost subconsciously seen as the "World Society," whereas making grand statements saying "Denmark this" or "New Zealand that" would seem a little too colloquial. I also suspect that the left in the US latches on to narratives (true and false ones) of country x doing better than the US in this, because they think that the American right, which is extremely patriotic, will be swayed to do what the left wants just so that the left will stop saying "country x is better than America in this." Lastly, in comparing the US to any other country, Americans getting together to say that their country is better than country x feels like punching down, while people from another country getting together to hate on the US feels like punching up, which is why you get dynamics where people favor one country over the US. And while it affects the US the most, you see this in any comparison of similar countries in which one country is bigger and more influential than the other. Watch any UK v Ireland or Australia v New Zealand video, and you'll never see the majority of comments favoring the UK over Ireland or Australia over New Zealand. What does this have to do with healthcare? Well this dynamic lends itself to the aforementioned preconceived negative and incorrect notions about American healthcare from foreigners, and the romanticization of foreign (for example Canadian) healthcare within the US, mainly on the left. It's along the lines of "ACTUALLY, these countries are better than the US because..." line of thinking. And because Canada for example is overshadowed by the US in most things, the romanticization of healthcare is something that becomes a rock that cannot be moved
@@AW-zk5qb JJ is a blatant conservative and its well known in Canada. His audience is NOT left wing I promise you. Its right wing Americans. He's the kind who uses American ignorance to invent problems and lie about my country. This video for example is painfully not objective and ignores the actual problem and how private clinics will do NOTHING to solve our problem. This is propaganda meant to get Americans to pressure my country to drop socialized medicine and its pathetic.
In the US, there seems to be an inverse problem where many people assume every other country has an NHS style system of almost entirely government run healthcare, which I find tends to erase a lot of nuance out of discussions on how to improve American healthcare going forward.
Look at the South Korean system. It is a private and public mix. It is cheap and fast. Government pays some but not all. But they do negotiate pricing with all the stakeholders.
I’ve lived in South Louisiana, USA my whole life, and I’ll tell you from personal experience that you have the “Americanized” or “privatized” healthcare system boogyman correct. My daughter had a double kidney infection and had to spend 3 days in the hospital and we walked out $4k in debt (WITH THE BEST INSURANCE IN THE STATE). Earlier this year, I was bit by a cat and it became septic. Spent 5 days in the hospital and $5k in debt (same insurance.) Heaven forbid you develop cancer and don’t have a specific cancer policy (you saw that right: most insurance policies DO NOT COVER catastrophic illnesses and require a separate policy that you need to pay IN ADDITION TO your regular premiums.) It’s awful down here people! Don’t let them take it from you when we’re trying to get some semblance of what you have! DON’T LET THEM PRIVATIZE YOUR HEALTHCARE! I ENVY THAT ALL YOU NEED ARE REFORMS! WE ARE SOOOO FAR FROM ANYTHING LIKE THAT. THE FEAR IS WELL FOUNDED!!!!
Two anecdotal stories as a Canadian citizen living and working in the US. 1) Until my insurance from my employer kicked in, it was slightly cheaper for me to fly back to Canada, pay out of pocket to see my old doctor, take my prescription for an asthma inhaler over to Shoppers Drug Mart, pay for it and to fly back, than it was to pay a local doctor and fill that prescription around the corner from my NYC apartment. Taking the exchange rate into account, it was about $10 cheaper. And I got to see my parents, so there’s that. 2) I have some school friends who are doctors in Canada, and they wish the Canadian system had the co-pays that I now dish out in the US. They feel that too many Canadians take the “free” in “free health care” and will go to the doctor for any minor or even imagined thing, even after they themselves have told patients that they’re fine and don’t need to come back. They feel that if Canadians had to pay something - even if it were reimbursed in the case of lower income people - it would give patients pause.
Interesting, here in Germany you don't pay for visiting the doctor too, only like 5 bucks for some conscription medicine, but I have never heard of people going to the doctor for no reason, maybe local differences but here it works just fine
in response to number 2, that's why i use telehealth services for minor things before doing anything, like going to emerg or a walk-in, i'm not tryna waste people's time. i had my first migraine attack a few weeks ago with an aura (pretty scary! thought i was going blind!) and the nurses were great in directing me as to how to care for myself at home, plus they got back to me super quick. the times where i knew "oh lord i need to call an ambulance/go to emerg" were: two drug overdoses and when my ear was profusely bleeding. in those events, there was no wait time i could complain about at all, because they were actual emergencies lol.
We have a lot of hypochondriacs in the US, too. Also, under the for-profit model the opposite problem tends to occur, where hospitals will too hastily turn recovering people back out onto the street in order to free up the availability of beds for a constant supply of new paying patients. Toward the end of his life, my dad practically used the private ambulance service as his personal taxi because the hospital kept sending him home without first waiting for his infections to clear, and he would always have to return a week or so later. Sometimes the ambulance service wouldn't even respond to calls from his house, or the responders would recognize him and refuse to take him back. Which is understandable. From their perspective my father was just abusing a vital service. In reality the hospital felt he was a lost cause and would rather he just died at home, not taking up a hospital bed from another paying customer
@@timteichmann6830 specifically in the case of my friends, who are both pediatricians, it’s parents bringing their children in for every little sniffle. They’ll be told they’re fine, and then they’re back at the doctors the next day, saying “I know you said they’re fine, but I just want to make extra sure!” As doctors, they can’t refuse the request, but it takes them away from dealing with children who are actually sick. Plus they still have to bill the government for each of these visits.
About your number two point, I doubt that would work. In Portugal people now pay small amounts (5 to 20 euros) and it doesn't stop them. Doesn't stop them when they pay 50 at a private doctor.
In America there’s this perception that Canadians have it much better because of the “free health care”. Didn’t realize you still need private insurance for stuff like dentistry and optometrists.
@@ms_cartographer this is such bullshit lol. The whole "bankrupt because of car accident" is the oldest pre programmed Canadian response in the book. Most Americans do not have this experience lol.
@@dunnowy123 Well, you've never experienced American insurance companies then huh. When you get an $11,000 Bill after your insurance decided that nah they won't cover your surgery for Reasons after pre approving coverage of the surgery you'll understand
I had a Canadian family member who contracted an easily preventable cancer due to how slow the wait times are. What's worse is the government then refused to treat the cancer (that they essentially gave her) because it was too expensive. For what it's worth she was able to prolong her life by flying to America for private treatment, however she did still eventually die from it. People need to grow up and acknowledge that there's no "perfect" modern healthcare system. All you can do is prioritize certain things at the cost of others.
@@shorewall When a country's population is dominated by those who are of old age they either need to bring in more high skilled workers, raise the retirement age, raise taxes or a combination of the three. It doesn't help that the country also has a low birth rate, due to the expenses of having a child. Raising taxes or moving to a private insurance just exacerbates the problem. It's a very complex issue where reform brings its own problems that we have to solve. The days of a booming population is over, and a lot of people are pushing back or abandoning their dreams of having a home, or a family, because it's too expensive.
You hit the nail on the head. Here in Ontario, I had to wait almost 2 years just to be placed in therapy for mental health, and it was grueling. However, the private clinics were way too costly, and I couldn't afford to go, even with insurance. While I appreciate that I had treatment paid for by my government, those who fantasize our system are usually those who are terminally online, or they're American.
I highly doubt that. The government does not refuse medically necessary care. Maybe she had requested experimental treatment and the government may have determined that there wasn't enough data to support it. But the government does not deny care because its "too expensive" when its medically necessary.
Canada really loves to adopt this sort of 'ride or die' pessimism, where the statue quo in everything from real estate to telecom to healthcare is defended no matter how bad they get on the assumption that whatever alternative we came up with would certainly be worse.
I think that's a more recent phenomenon and a symptom of the closing days of neo liberalism. No one really knows what to do next. Do we continue on with neo liberalism and privatize or try something different or even try and improve the system we have (but no one wants to pay for)?
Yes, and bonus points for the ones that are even remotely like anything American...it seems many Canadians would rather stab themselves in the eye with a fork than admit anything from the US may be on par with, or even superior to a Canadian policy.
I work at a private diagnostic clinic in BC and over time it’s been interesting to see the severity of patients as wait times increase. There are people with critical heart blockages that are on 9 month wait lists for a 15 min CT in a public facility. As well we do pain injections for peoples backs. They are supposed to get them every 3 months and at the hospital there is a 6 month wait list. The result is that some people end up being disabled while they are on this list to simply get an injection in their back. Our system has bottle necks all over the place and it hard to know where is best to focus to relieve it.
Would the private clinic that you work at be willing to accept the BC Care card for payments and charge the government instead of the patient? If the answer to that is yes then your private clinic is no different than many peoples family doctor or the walk in clinic a couple blocks away.
I am a Canadian living in Japan. Japan has a national health insurance but you still have to pay up to about 10%. In the past, a doctor recommended I get an MRI. I was able to book one in a matter of days. I think I paid about $75. I have never had the problem of waiting for a procedure here. I also have to go to a clinic to get medication every 3 months. I wait less than an hour and pay about $10. Mind you, the Japanese government is deep in debt and I do not know how much of that is healthcare related.
$75 is a bargain! Locally where I live in the United States, they run $1500 or more, and despite breaking my neck, my insurance company required cheaper radiological tests first, and it would only pay for both of my spiblnal fusions after both of these tests were done. Luckily, I only had a $1500 deductible despite my medical bills running around $300,000-$2,000,000 yearly.
I think it's a bit of a strawman to assume you can only get hit with outrageous medical bills in the US if you're uninsured. As you hint at in the video, most Americans ARE insured, yet loads of Americans have or have had medical debt which is a foreign concept to people in most developed nations. As an American who lived in Europe for about six and a half years, I can assure you that, by comparison, it is a terrible system even when you have good insurance because of the unnecessary hassles like high co-pays, deductibles, and "in-network" healthcare providers. Everyone I know in America has either had an awful experience themselves or knows someone that's had an awful experience with their insurer charging them ludicrous amounts of money or otherwise fighting them on what they'll cover. I just moved to Quebec so I can't speak on the problems with the Canuck system yet, but I can't imagine it being worse than what I experienced in America.
My mom is permanently disabled and cannot work. Because her income is zero, she doesn’t qualify for reduced health insurance through obamacare. She also doesn’t qualify for medicaid because she lives with me. She ALSO doesn’t qualify for disability insurance because she was a stay-at-home mom before becoming disabled. She has regular surgeries because of her health problems and is in thousands of dollars in medical debt with no way to pay it. Our system in America is so fundamentally flawed.
This. Know plenty of US folks with excellent insurance that get hit with huge bills, even for things like childbirth. As rough as our system is in Canada, it's a far sight better
Comedian Emo Philips had a bit that went roughly: "My father had a heart attack recently, and it's sad. Under the American Health Care System, we ended up losing the house. Whereas under the Canadian Health Care System, we would have inherited it."
Heart attacks are usually high priority in Canada...plus looking at the data in 2005 America had a mortality rate from heart attacks of 12% (13% chance you'd die if you had a heart attack), while in Canada it was 11%... basically the same.....
I'm an oncologist. A specific absudity to highlight one of the many ineffeciencies of our system: For certain cancers (certain scenarios in colorectal in particular), there are two chemotherapies that are roughly equivalent in efficacy. One is a pill (capecitabine), the other is an iv infusion (5-fluorouracil). The iv requires a small procedure to insert a large Iv into the chest wall for administration, requires visits to the oncologist every 2 weeks instead of three, requires more "chair time" where a nurse supervises the injection, and in some cases takes 6 months instead of 3. The pill has slightly more side effects, and the drug itself costs slightly more, but not when all the extra resources are factored in. Many provinces only cover the iv, not the pill. Why? Because they administer it "in a hospital", and therefore its paid for. The pill is from a pharmacy, so its not. Even though them just paying for the drug would save them money. Worse for patients, worse for the system.
I'm a Canadian who has lived in the USA and is fairly familiar with both healthcare systems. This video is good, though it seems light on the issue of choice and competition, regarding routine healthcare. In Canada, you are often fortunate to "get" (i.e. be assigned) a family doctor in smaller provinces: there is no sense of choosing among doctors. In the USA (_provided you have health insurance_, and live in an urban area), staff are well aware of the competition of the marketplace: you can "fire" your family doctor and get another one. This is just an observation. I am very happy to be back in Canada and mostly happy with the system, but this was a noticeable difference between the two.
You are comparing small provinces to an urban area in the U.S and it feels like you are insinuating that you can't switch your doctor even in an urban area in Canada which is silly, it is something I just did. I don't doubt there are less doctors in rural areas but I don't think that has anything to do with particular failing in the Canadian healthcare system, and is just like that everywhere in the world that is sparely populated.
I'm an American who just moved to Toronto with my Canadian fiance two years ago. From what I've seen the Canadian system is really great in the sense that people don't have to seek out a good employer in order to get good insurance. However, the wait times are getting really, really bad. I am very concerned about it getting worse. I've also heard multiple Canadians say how important it is that they get/maintain a job that provides additional insurance/HC benefits.
@@RoughRunnerAce98 I haven't used the Canadian healthcare system, but as a rural American I can confirm that it's often possible to change doctors at will even in very rural areas here. (Even if you are an hour away from Doctor #2, then you're probably most of an hour away from Doctor #1 anyway.)
@@philipmcniel4908 There is nothing preventing you from switching doctors even in rural areas in Canada, it just has the same drawbacks as anywhere else in the world. Like you mentioned, it probably yields no benefit if all you are considering is distance from home, since its a rural area. I don't know what the first commenter is suggesting, for any reason if you don't want to work with a specific family doctor there isn't anything stopping you from switching in Canada in normal circumstances where there are other doctors taking new patients as far as I'm aware. We have the choice of family doctors here. My cousin lives an hour away from her family doctor because she liked and kept hers even when she moved away and can consult with the doctor over the phone...
The Canadian systems need improvements, and ideally, to be merged into a central system to cut costs and ensure quality care across the country. It's still a heck of a lot better than the US one for 99.9% of people though. ,(I say this as an indigenous Canadian who's experienced some pretty overt medical racism [Told by the first doc I saw re: ADHD following my diagnosis that "we don't really give stimulants to natives"] as has some of my family [docs ran a tox screen on my mother because she was complaining of 10/10 back pain in hospital. She was having an aortic dissection, and they waited 4 hours for the screen to come back negative before they did basic imaging and realized her aorta was dilated to over twice its normal size.])
In Finland we have a mixed system. The government refunds you for mandated stuff performed by a private doctor or sometimes pays the doctor directly. But the government sets the price, so it can’t balloon. And if your doctor tries to gouge you, you can use the state system which is very good, though you do have wait times for non critical stuff. My husband has never had private insurance. 🙃 I don’t think your politician is exploring a bad route.
I can assure you as an American who has never lacked health insurance that the American healthcare system is a terror to inhabit even with fairly good private insurance. For instance, when a bill for my child’s birth was sent to an old address and sent to debt collectors. Or the thousands or millions of unwanted jobs people keep because they need the coverage.
Oh there is also going to an in-network hospital and discovering two months later that a random anesthesiologist is out of network and you are responsible for their arbitrarily determined enormous fee.
I'm American and watched the whole video, I know you're trying to be balanced and bring Canadians down a peg off their high horse, but I think you understated how much of a scam our healthcare system is in the USA. While it is true most Americans have insurance highly subsidized through their employers, and all of the big hospitals are "non profit" (I put that in quotes for a reason), that doesn't stop these hospitals from charging your insurance company (or you the individual if you don't have insurance) absolutely asasine amounts of money for everything while the administrators who run the hospital rake in huge salaries. When my wife gave birth the non profit hospital charged my insurance company over $100,000 and I had to pay like $2,500 out of pocket even though my deductible was $500 because of small print. And it trickles down: hospitals scam insurance companies, insurance companies scam customers. And while medicaid and medicare exist good luck getting affordable insurance if you don't qualify for those programs and your job doesn't give you coverage (part time jobs aren't required to have a medical plan). Obamacare is expensive out of pocket and has really high deductibles.
Obamacare is based on income. When I was a student and my wife was a teacher, my bill was 27 a month. Its higher now that I work but its still well under the old way.
As an American (and particularly one from an economically-depressed rural area where MANY people are on Medicaid), I have two thoughts about this topic: -First, the "medically-necessary" thing is _very_ open to interpretation by bureaucrats. I personally know someone who was on Medicaid and had an impacted wisdom tooth (meaning that it was growing sideways into one of his other teeth, and--in the professional opinion of his dentist--would become infected if not removed in time). Yes, Medicaid can have programs for dental and vision coverage "on the side," as I understand it, since it's designed for the poor who might not be able to afford such things. Anyway, this person was told by Medicaid that the extraction was not considered medically necessary because he wasn't infected, so he would have to wait until it got infected--which was inevitable according to his dentist, remember?--before having it removed. He consulted the office of the oral surgeon to whom he'd been referred, and asked about paying out-of-pocket (he had some kind and generous people in his life who were willing to help him do so), and they said they couldn't let people on his state's Medicaid program do that. (I presume this is because they don't want to pay for the medically-necessary treatment of complications caused by medically-unnecessary procedures, e.g. if you get an infection following cosmetic surgery.) Anyway, this guy had to go off Medicaid, and only after that paperwork was approved was he able to get his wisdom tooth removed, by which point it had been bothering him for awhile. -Second, about the first critique mentioned in Part 5, about private providers charging the government more than publically-owned providers: *_That's kind of the point!_* Anyone who has taken a basic macroeconomics class has seen a supply curve, which is a visual representation of how the higher-priced something is, the more suppliers will be incentivized to exist. If the government artificially sets a price cap, that artificially also caps the number of suppliers to the number who are willing to provide a service for the government-decreed price. I would argue that Canada's wait times may, at least in part, be a result of this inelasticity of supply (though I can't say for certain with my limited knowledge of the situation of Canadian healthcare). Paying a bit more for private providers, in this model, is simply the price of moving up to a higher point on the supply curve.
The US has ~100% overall higher cost for healthcare compared to Canada. The US costs have resulted in a supply curve where the US has primary care access at 87% versus 86% in Canada. Canadian family doctors (GPs) are private providers. See “Canada ranks last in primary health care access among 10 wealthy countries: report”. In the private surgery provision experiments the provinces have run not only were the costs higher (despite cherry-picking the uncomplicated cases), the provincial wait times ended up increasing. Private provision is a hackneyed fake solution. It is sham innovation.
Private clinics can work to help alleviate the strain on Canada’s public hospitals, as long as they are non-profit, price-controlled, and extremely regulated. That’ll be the only way to avoid greed from taking over and truly Americanizing Canadian health care.
I, an American, found a breast lump in January 2021. I didn’t have insurance at the time, so I was afraid to get it checked out-I’d only just finished paying off my student loans, I was more afraid of another 10 years of life-crippling debt than of having cancer. Still, I definitely was also afraid of having cancer, so I set myself to the task of getting a job with healthcare so I could go check it out-as soon as my temporary work contract ended, 3 months later. But the first job I got (in a rush) was really exhausting, and after the 3 months of waiting for the healthcare to kick in I was like “I could not do this job on chemo, it would kill me,” so I had to quit and go find a different job and wait another 3 months for the new healthcare to kick in. But then at the new job, my role was not well defined and I didn’t feel settled and confident the job was going to last. I really needed to be in a good, stable situation to take the hit, to handle both the cost and the treatment itself if it came to that… Ultimately I didn’t get it checked out until over a year and a half after I first worried there was something wrong. Fortunately I finally did get it checked, and I don’t have cancer, yay! Now I just have to pay off the $3700 bill for all the tests, because almost nothing on my terrible insurance is covered until you hit the $4300 deductible. So like, a 27-week wait-time seems *pretty tame* to me.
I think it's important to note that the issue isn't that reformers want "American Healthcare" because of experiences like you have described. The issue is almost any reform is scrutinized for if it appears "American" by the nationalists. This is frustrating because it shuts down avenues for improvement. Many developed countries that have objectively better healthcare outcomes than Canada have elements to their system that get rejected for being "too American" here.
@@PaigeMTL There are other reasons the reforms are being called "American" that he didn't have time to mention. There are a lot of reasons people distrust Ford's statements. Ford has done a lot of shady things like anti-strike, budget cuts, and over working people. This change comes off as a problem Ford created, and now is something he wants to claim he can solve.
True. There are so many reasons someone might be temporarily without insurance and god forbid anything happen during that time. My deductible is $6k so it pretty much pays for nothing unless it’s catastrophic. It also doesn’t cover the usuals, dental, vision, mental health, etc. that’s all out of pocket. Its also SO HARD to find a doctor in-network. I had to travel 45 minutes away to see an ENT. My ex BROKE HIS HAND and refused to go to the hospital because he didn’t have insurance. His hand is pretty messed up now from it and just about everyone i know had a similar story. I tell all my friends that if I ever have a medical emergency, call me an uber because I can’t afford an ambulance. Also side note. If you are fortunate enough to be able to afford private insurance, you better be relatively healthy because preexisting conditions will jack up your premium sky high, or flat out disqualify you for some programs.
Well... I, an American agree. My first introduction to a waiting list had been from the UK, and they usually have already set ones, you know you'll have to wait, and oftentimes it's as high as 55 weeks.. However, people with cancer probably shouldn't and wouldn't wait almost 30 weeks, it would be too late..
One topic worth mentioning for US healthcare that is seldom known or reported: We have non-profit and for-profit hospitals, they are very different in multiple ways but mostly in payment. The non-profit ones are much better if you're uninsured because they will offer a financial form you fill out and hand them a pay stub from your job, or certify you're jobless through tax papers and then boom: all bills are wiped. If you go to a for-profit hospital this may or may not happen because US law only requires this for non-profit. It's counted as Charity Work and the non-profit gets federal reimbursements.
we have a really old health care system model, back when you just put people in mental asylums and that was "mental health" treatment. It's changed so much, but the system hasn't kept up with treatments.
That is one of the reasons we have a extremely high homeless , hungry population. They are all over every street even while -30 degree...very sad with this Liberal NDP government
Last year I discovered I had a seemingly-minor debilitating disease from going to a local drop-in medical centre here in Canada, and was promptly told that I should just go to the ER with this in spite of them setting up a meeting with a surgeon and prescribing antibiotics. I didn't think it seemed that serious considering what I imagined people go to ER for, and my parents agreed, but it turned out to be a necessary way to avoid a 5 MONTH WAIT just to see a surgeon who would then set up another half-year wait for the surgery to actually happen. Once my condition got so bad I was genuinely worried for my life a while later I did go to the ER where I waited for at least 3 hours to be examined. I was told by the doctors that I would need to wait another 6 MONTHS for examination by a better expert doctor or else put on a cancellation waiting list. I took the latter, obviously, and managed to get examined only 2 weeks later by some great luck. And again the offer of some months or cancellation. The latter finally got me in to get my condition alleviated after another few weeks. All told I had to wait 53 days, but as you can see it could have been a lot worse if people went by the book. My faith in this Canadian healthcare myth has been forever shattered, though I can't say I wasn't grateful to not have to pay for the doctors' time.
Some advantages to a two tiered approach to health care: 1: gives Canadians an option to keep their money (their own or fundraised) inside Canada. Taxes collected from private healthcare centre helps fund public healthcare. 2: removes names from the wait list for public health centres thereby speeding up service for those who cannot afford to pay privately. 3: Creates a competitive environment for both private and public where the patient will have better options on both sides 4: attract doctors who might prefer a private business model over a publicly-funded model thereby increasing the supply of doctors.
US-based guy here. I'm sure both of our systems have their pros and cons, but I must say the way you downplayed the number of people completely screwed over by being uninsured/underinsured doesn't reflect my experience here. The private insurance companies and hospitals try every angle to screw us over. I have a great employer and some of the best insurance available, and I still deal with the worst surprise bills. It's part of life and it's super stressful. It's no wonder one of the biggest categories on GoFundMe is fundraising for healthcare. Super sad. Also, our wait times and supply issue seems to be getting worse, so I don't see how our capitalist healthcare system even does a good job there. It's bizarre. Aside from my critique of how you underplayed the issues with our system, I did enjoy learning some new things about your Canadian system. Seems like you all have a good foundation to build upon and I wish you all luck!
Canadian here. I just came back from a trip to USA where my spouse had cancer surgically removed completely. Expensive AF, but also fast and efficient AF. The wait time in Canada was 8 months just for an analysis (then a longer wait for surgery). So, ya, in some ways the US system is better.
US healthcare is abysmal. Wait times are vastly over exaggerated. Sure if you have something that is elective you may have to wait a little longer but if it is an emergency you get seen immediately. It is prioritized on need not money like in the US.
It's kind of similar to the mexican healthcare in the way that the IMSS (instituto Mexicano de seguridad social) tends to place absurdly long wait lists to important operations in a way that it's out of the cuestion to wait. So most mexicans end up goint to a private hospital, which defeats the purpose of an universal healthcare. It's even worst since you can't opt out on paying the health care tax. Great video, asl always
Even with all the issues, I would still take the Canadian system over the american one any day of the week. Nearly every life decision I ever make, and dozens of hours of my life a month, are devoted solely to managing my healthcare expenses and min-maxing treatments to afford the most care possible. It is such a massive toll on my mental health, my physical health, and my finances. This doesn't make the canadian system perfect of course, far from it, and you go into many of the issues here. These can, and should, be addressed. But still.
And those issues CAN be addressed. If Canadians could get off their anti american high horse for like, a day, a lot could be addressed. The reply to any valid critique of Canadian healthcare is ALWAYS shitting on the US. What problem does that solve? None. It's a much better use of energy to find unique solutions for unique Canadian problems.
It doesn’t have to be American style! It can be a 2-tier system that works very well for all, like in many other parts of the world that are Not America .
Depending on what medical problems you are managing, in Canada you may have been recommended for euthanasia by now. I'm not joking. Ordinary chronic disease sufferers are being counselled into suicide by Canada's health systems.
An interesting sub-topic would be medical tourism. I have seen many Canadians in Mexican border towns with the US getting dentistry, health care and prescriptions. In fact some Mexican towns basically solely exist for medical tourism.
As a Brit, I think the Canadian system works very similarly to the NHS so this is an interesting video I also think a lot of the ‘boogeyman stereotypes’ of American healthcare being widely inaccessible are quite common in the UK as people don’t really understand the US system
Considering medical specialists & doctors are leaving Ontario in droves (I've had two doctors move to the US out of frustration with the Canadian system) recently, it makes complete sense for the province to look at reforming the health care system. I've been advocating within my friend group since I was 12 (over 20 years ago) for a proper 2-Tier system in this country. Now my friends are all working high up in the Ford government and my long gestating plan is coming to fruition. As a heads up, the next thing we will be tackling is the teachers unions.
A friend of mine from Brampton has a daughter with microcephaly. She has said that for the most part she can''t even get treatment in Ontario and has to take her daughter to New York for treatment. Of course, on the flip side, she says Canada pays for the treatment, so there''s that.
@@JJMcCullough the issue with American Healthcare is the cost but the quality of care is pretty good as long as you are covered by insurance or a government program that is.
@@ColonizerChan true, but you never have more than two people to a small room. Many I've talked to from England act like US hospitals are like hotels and would never dream of a private room for delivering their baby I think understanding "universal healthcare" is as problematic for Americans as it seems to be Canadians understanding USA Healthcare. I think it's also about finding where exactly things started going wrong and figuring out a solution. For example my dad didn't have the best of jobs growing up, and we were a paycheck to paycheck family, but our medical bills were at most a third if today's and that's just 20ish years ago. Even just 10 yrs ago my aunt had no problems obtaining medicade, but now it's a fight for her to keep it.
I think this type of scenario where someone is being sent from Canada to the U.S. for treatment not available in Canada has a lot to do with America being 10x the size of Canada. In general, I’d expect and hope America has more health resources than a country it is 10x the size of. Here and there, you may find treatment that is available or at least more advanced in Canada (e.g. The Peter Munk Centre in Toronto is #1 in the world for heart related issues), but undeniably, of course America is going to have more advanced treatment than Canada due to its size.
I find it funny how NA centered Canada and the US are at times. Across the pond, the only single payer systems you can find are the Brits and the French. The rest of the continent (specifically the EU) have a wide variety of systems that are a mixture of regulations and private and public insurances Notable examples are: Germany has a range of public insurance companies whos costs are tied to your pay rather than age or pre existing conditions, along side private insurances. Doctors are usually private practices that either accept or reject public insurance, which leads to the problem of over use. In the Netherlands, all insurance is private, though its legally mandatory and companies are required to take in people with preexisting conditions. Medicine is heavily regulated as well. Costs are relatively high due to the above obviously, and medicine shortages are a thing sometimes.
I think that this perception that all counties in Europe have the same system really holds back discussions on healthcare reform in the US. It seems to be stuck in a debate between either the status quo or complete government control that “all other developed counties have.”
Another problem I would say is a lack of consistent funding. Here in Ontario, the PCs have been cutting funding to healthcare for quite a while in order to push for privatization. The problem is that a private healthcare system in Canada would be no different then in the U.S apart from the fact that we ALSO have a brain drain. So we'd get both expensive treatment and slow wait times if privatization continues. There will always be more of an intensive to invest in the longstanding U.S healthcare system so a private healthcare system just won't be well funded. The only option is to correctly fund our healthcare system and keep our physicians inside the country.
Surprised you didn't mention the recent controversy with the MAiD program. For those unfamiliar, there have been several recent cases of health care workers suggesting and even pressuring patients into assisted dying to save money on their healthcare.
It really doesn’t help that a few years back there was a study that the cbc themselves reported noting that allowing euthanasia as a form of health care could save 130 million dollars.
I don’t think JJ wanted to get into political territory. He talked about how he wanted to get away from partisan politics. But I still think that is a big issue.
I would definitely want to hear JJ's take on this, because all the discourse I've heard on it is extremely sensational, especially here in the States where there is a lot of money to be made from the insurance lobby to tell lіеs and half truths about public healthcare. JJ is one of the few people I would trust to approach this phenomenon fairly.
As an American, I can attest that the system is NOT GOOD. I once had to go to the ER after a rather bad car wreck and had to wait 12 hours to be seen by a nurse-practitioner, another 3 before a doctor saw me, and when I asked if I could, like, go to another hospital they told me if I tried to leave after having signed in security would detain me for trying to "bail without paying the bill." I got slapped with a nearly $3000 charge my insurance refused to covered after I was given the once over by the doctor and told to "take a few days off work, rest, and take generic pain medication for any aches I will have." It took me months to get the bill waived since I work in in-home healthcare and do NOT make that much money and they were wanting it then and there or they would garnish a huge portion of my wages or send the bill to collections and tank my credit rating that I've been building for years.
I did a report on the chronic condition in my undergrad! It really lifted the scales off my eyes about the state of Canadian healthcare and made me realize we seriously have like a national ignorance when it comes to healthcare in Canada. I’m really glad to see Ford actually taking on reform and that so far, the reform seems to be improvements that were mentioned in the book. Really didn’t think ANY Canadian politician would have the guts to take on the issue of our broken healthcare system, but I’m glad I was wrong
While I agree the system needs to change. I do think people should still be skeptical with Ford. He isn't the most well known for doing things in the best interest of the people. He has a tendency to say one thing then do another. Now I do hope that his changes lead to a better future. But I won't believe it till I see it.
I have always appreciated your even handed approach to these political issues. It's rare on the level of unicorns on TH-cam. Congrats to you for finding such success with this model. This video was another great, balanced take.
As an American, without a serious health condition or a major injury requiring treatment, just paying for my insurance plan is a huge portion of my income. That’s the baseline, not including appointments or procedures or medication when I need a test.
I think your characterization of the American healthcare system really glossed over its horrific outcomes, by not mentioning that people who are insured still end up with egregious bills in their co-pays and deductibles. Canadians do overreact to any mention of privatization, but they overreact to that because of the horrors they constantly hear about in the American system.
Canadians also pay about 50% of their income in taxes. Americans do not (they pay much lower taxes), so theoretically one could account for these bills by saving or treating it as a necessary cost.
i’m an american citizen who lives in minnesota and i’ve never paid a medical bill in my life. when i was poor they gave me free health insurance. first of all you have to look at healthcare policies in EACH STATE. canadians biggest mistake is thinking american healthcare is the same across the board. in minnesota we are one of the highest taxed states, so we have safety nets for people in bad situations. second, charity is very american. we don’t like to be forced to pay taxes for others unwillingly (taxation is theft), we have a culture of donating money and other resources to help the needy. christians are very good at this. and BECAUSE OF CAPITALISM we have some of the best medical centers in the world. people from all over the globe come to minnesota to come to the Mayo Clinic, celebs and all.
@@eliasarches2575 And yet tons of Canadians say it would be cheaper to fly back to Canada and talk to their old doctor, than get the same medication or treatment in the US.
Agreed, glossing over the fact that medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US really struck me as odd. I don’t think this is one of those cases where you can just shout “media sensationalism” regarding stories of people having to pay insane amounts out of pocket.
Hi J.J. - I think we need a Part II from you. A mention of how sports medicine is done would be worthwhile. When I hurt my knee I was put on a "7-month" waiting list to get an MRI, but several months later I inquired about my position on the list. I was told, "We estimate about 6 months, maybe 7." WTF? So I went to my very excellent chiropractor at that point, who got me over the problem and I could walk without a cane again. Later I found out that I could have gone through sports medicine to get the MRI, with a cost of about $700.00. Not free, but I would have happily paid it.
I am pretty sure that many Canadians don't realize how similar the American and Canadian Health Care System is. The citizens of each country get health insurance while both citizens pay extra when they cross the border. I had a Canadian friend in college who said that he had to pay higher prices when he got injured. When I told him that I had the same experience in Canada, he was surprised.
My aunt went to Las Vegas. She got sick and spent THREE HOURS in the ER. Her bill was $15,000.US For the very same condition in Canada she would have paid NOTHING. JJ, some of your thoughts are WRONG.
To be fair I have full insurance and I broke my collarbone and had to have surgery and a titanium plate installed. The hospital charged my insurance company 50k and all in I was on the hook for about 7k. My plan says that after 7k in a year I no longer have any out of pocket payments.. The most excruciating part of this, is that one of my clients is an orthopedic surgeon and said for the same treatment he would bill 7k even uninsured. When people have emergencies they’re not typically browsing hospitals for a few days to find the best deal. And because of this Americans can’t vote with their wallet and they get charged whatever the hospital feels like charging that day.
Not to mention that the 7k I ended up paying came from 6 different organizations and multiple different claims. It was a complete headache trying to see how much to even pay and to whom.
Aquela citação sobre os políticos, por medo da repercussão eleitoral, não quererem aumentar impostos, nem aumentar a participação do setor privado na saúde, nem explicar para a população as consequências de o sistema de saúde tomar uma fatia crescente do orçamento público se aplica perfeitamente ao Brasil. Ela se aplica à questão da previdência social brasileira também, mas isso é uma outra conversa.
@@felipeitoanuatti sistema público de saúde é sempre um gasto enorme. Que se justifica. E que precisa de ser pago. Nao é gratuito, mesmo que o utilizador não tiver que pagar nada após utilizar os seus serviços. Os nossos impostos pagam o mesmo.
Thank you so much for making this video. I've been waiting patiently for 2 years since requesting it, and you did not disappoint. Keep up the great work!
Sounds like me waiting for a specialist. I've been on the list for over a year to get my chronic illness diagnosed. Instead, I've paid so much in physiotherapy to manage the pain since physio isn't covered. I do wonder if a diagnosis would cover it as I have to go 1-4 times a month at least.
In the united states I've had to wait 22 weeks just to SEE the specialist, let alone them ACTUALLY doing something... and we had GREAT private insurance through my mom's work at the time.
He would have had to do a much longer video to compare everything. He also missed a lot of detail around Doug Ford's policies influencing the distrust in Ford's announcement. I don't think it was going to be a full analysis of either healthcare system, and he does lean right which effects how he covers things.
In the US, I had the opposite experience. Went to the hospital, stayed a few days, then saw 4 specialists within a week afterwards. Whenever I have a flare up, I can see my specialist same day, or their assistant can take care of matters to comfort symptoms, until they can fit me in within a week. This is not intended to be smug. I think it depends on where you live and the number of health systems available. Also helps having good PPO coverage that's basically universally accepted.
That was a very informative, unbiased video. Well done! I was hoping you would mention how MAID works into all of this, but maybe that’s for another video. One last thing, was Doug Ford the wheels off Toronto Mayor from a few years back?
When I was a kid, my dad would take us to Canada on "road trips" so that he could get cheap painkillers and he would use me and my sister as mules to smuggle them over the border. That was before he went to prison and we were put in foster care for much worse, much more disgusting crimes that he committed...... Wow I didn't expect this comment to be as dark as it was. Sorry everyone.
I really appreciate how you presented the American healthcare system. The amount of misinformation I've heard from non-Americans about our system is astounding. When I try to correct them, they don't want to hear it. The truth threatens their sense of superiority.
Canadians seem particularly ill-informed about….well, everything. I had one claim that college was expensive in the US because “the US doesn’t have public universities, unlike Canada.” I had another claim “the US spends the majority of its budget on the military, unlike Canada where we spend it on roads and education.” Both these people were physically in the US at the time, enjoying economic and cultural activities they couldn’t do “in Canada.”
To be fair, JJ underplayed issues with the American system significantly. For the insured, things like coinsurance, copays, and deductibles regularly make like saving procedures cripplingly expensive even with coverage. And for the uninsured (which make up a much larger portion of the US than JJ's tone implied), they not only have to cope with paying the same amount that would be covered by insurance, they have to pay significant markups that insurance companies are able to negotiate away. Between these two groups, there is a large portion of the United States that is effectively cutoff from medical care in all but the most dire circumstances, and financially crippled when they aren't. Given the choice of waiting for care or receiving none at all, I know what I prefer. (I'm not suggesting the Canadian model is perfect or that it would not benefit from reform, but suggesting the current US system is anything but an objective failure in comparison seems far fetched in my opinion).
@@answerman9933 People working in small businesses across the country, like my mother for example. The current system places the cost for coverage on employers, with smaller companies having higher costs due to their smaller pools. This results in many small businesses forgoing coverage, making them less competitve than their big business peers while also disadvantaging their employees, who have to pay ridiculous premiums for single payer plans.
Thank you for this matter-of-fact analysis. We deal with much of the same rhetoric here in Alberta whenever the government even hints at health care reform that involves the use of ‘private’ clinics.
@ingrid is the wait times in alberta bad? trying to decide if to migrate to canada and as an asthmatic that got lil worst after covid and this health care system, i cant decide
@@swankyshivy It really depends. When I had a family doctor, I didn't have any wait times. Since my family doctor quit, we have to rely on walk-in clinics, and the wait times there can sometimes be long.
It's very interesting that Canadians think what Premier Ford deacribed is terrible, because as an American, i would love that system rather than the healthcare anarchy that we have here
As an american, Our health care is so expensive. Every time patient that gets treatment, The doctor's hold you at gunpoint demanding your house your car and your life savings or else you would die. I just experienced this after Is my pinky broke They demanded my life savings. so now I am homeless now
It's the central problem of politics everywhere. Many people want more government services, but no one wants to pay more taxes. So politicians promise more spending without more revenue. Which requires increasingly creative ways to pretend what they're doing is something other than borrowing the funds and making everyone's grandkids pay for it.
"no one wants to pay more taxes"..well problem is that the concentration of wealth and loop holes for tax avoidance means the very rich are not paying sufficient tax, and move money out of the jurisdiction
This seems to be a problem more in highly individualistic countries (ie Canada, US, etc). People often confuse individualism w/ being a man alone on an island. The man dies. If 10 people land on an island w/ 1 a doctor he/she will treat everyone, no cost. The 9 others will support the doctor.
Honestly, as a Canadian, I preferred my Healthcare when we paid for our premiums... as soon as they took over, services were reduced or cut out completely. We NEVER EVER want the govt to "provide" such services because they lack! I'd rather pay and get what I need.
A potential solution could involve incorporated direct democracy sampled from the public. Give a panel information from experts and plan options, and then let them decide on what they are willing to sacrifice. France has done something similar in a trial
A simplification of both Canadian and American systems: Americans pay their healthcare costs in money, while Canadians pay their healthcare costs in time. Nothing is free at the end of the day - it's still other people's labour that is being done somewhere somehow.
Okay I agree with a lot of what you say here, however you do not seem to understand how common getting a surprise $300 bill in the mail for a sleep study is in America so I for the first time in awhile disagree with the crux of your point contrasting Canada with America
In the US it sucks if you live in the south. If you stop working then they throw you off insurance. Conservatives in the U.S will point out shorter wait times but won't tell you that you will go bankrupt.
Dang, the US expects you to pay for health insurance? Other countries expect you to pay for universal healthcare through taxes. It bwould be nice though if everything in life is free
I see people talking about the freedom of choice in the US. That's great, except you're usually shoehorned into a very limited set of choices based on your insurance company, and your set of insurance choices is drastically limited by whether or not you want to spend an average Canadian's annual salary on health insurance, or if you want to spend very little and just experience financial ruin if anything bad actually happens. Maybe some of the reaction against Ford is overblown, but you have a system you should fix in Canada, and a lot of people in Canada are highly motivated to turn it into an American-style system where there are immense profits that mostly go to insurance companies. So, tread carefully.
I think the biggest mistake Canadians and Americans make is that the healthcare debate in both countries is very binary. You must either support American-style privatized healthcare or Canadian-style single payer and nothing in between. I'm always amazed at how shocked people on both sides of the border are to learn that these two systems, including single payer, are comparatively rare outside the Anglosphere. In Germany, for instance, private health insurance companies exist but are treated as utility companies, thus are strictly regulated and subsidized to ensure universal access and affordability.
Our local hospital here in Maine is full of Canadians. The main issue I am told is that wait time for medical treatment can be extremely long. But this is a great video. Between my wife and kids, we have employer funded insurance, and rarely pay out of pocket for anything. Those without can get medicare/medicaid/state-funded plans. It does help to shop around to make sure you are getting covered treatment
Watching Canadians complain about their healthcare while I went medically bankrupt over a broken ankle surgery. These issues are shared by American hospitals especially the ER crowding. Took me 8 hours to be seen for my shattered ankle and the entire time they told me it probably wasn’t broken it’s probably a strain because I wasn’t screaming or crying. The difference being I got a fat bill and a three week wait for surgery which cost over 200k.
I had an incidence of IBS a couple years ago. Went to the doctor, got tests done. Was told they didn't know what to do but they would refer me to a GI specialist. They wouldn't give me a contact name or anyting just that they would be in touch with me in some amount of time. It's been 2-years now and I'm still waiting on the call. Canadian health insurance is great if you need emergency life-saving surgery in a rich city or just need basic care from a clinic or cheap pharmaceuticals. But as soon as you need a specialist need to see a doctor for recurring knee or shoulder issue or in my case something more specialized but not technically urgent or life-threatening you are basically screwed
The trick to avoid wait times in Canada is the same as in America, just go to the emergency room. You'll see all the specialists you need within days if not hours or immediately, instead of going through your family doctor who will put you on one of those months long wait lists. Just make sure it's not a rural hospital emergency room though.
Wait times are horrible in the US too, on top the hefty price. My sister had to wait for 9 months for a specialist to see her before she was finally diagnosed with epilepsy. If it weren't for the fact that my BiL is a health care worker himself and is given the best insurance that's currently available in the States, her medical bills woulf have backrupted them.
I know! I can’t understand how our wait times are better. It took my mom years to get the surgeries she needed approved. Simply because she had to schedule appointments at minimum six months out, sometimes more. With about two or three specialists in between that all made her wait and be in pain for years! She was working the whole time from home and couldn’t even sit without being in pain. By the end of it, she was bedridden and couldn’t hardly walk, let alone take herself to the doctor. But you really can’t get an ambulance because that’s not covered and can be anywhere from $500-1000+ depending on where they have to take you to get treatment. Oh yeah, and the visits and surgeries basically weren’t covered until we hit a $6000+ deductible. And she was in a good job with decent insurance coverage. She paid that deductible every year, because, like I said, it took YEARS to get everything done and deductibles reset at the beginning of the coverage period. Also the medicine was way too pricy, and so is mine. I wouldn’t be able to drive if I didn’t have mine and would probably be on disability right now. I’m not looking forward to switching to this new insurance. It’s a $7000 deductible and has higher co-pays. It’s just not fair. I’m so glad I get a discount for my $800 medicine I need, because they almost didn’t cover that either and I have to get it approved every year by the only doctor I can go to in reasonable distance that isn’t covered by insurance anyhow. Ugghhhhhhhhgehgejsjsnbj. I hope I never have a serious problem, because I’m screwed if I ever just have too hard a case of Covid or something. #MURICA
Thanks for making this video, J.J. As a young new resident of Ontario, I've been hearing about it on the news but haven't really known the details or the nuances of the situation.
Canadian wait times and spending issues & American insurance premiums and out of pocket expenses aren't mutually exclusive. We can both have extremely flawed systems without either being the "correct" system to follow. Hell, I bet everyone in their respective countries could find plenty of problems with their versions of Healthcare, or things to praise about it. All I know is, as an American who has had little money, less-than-stellar job opportunities, and no insurance as of late.... I dread seeing the doctor. I haven't in many many years, and won't unless I'm literally dying. Wait times suck and are dangerous, but I'd rather wait 20 weeks and eventually get fixed than NEVER get an operation done for fear of cost. Obviously some have it better than others and even state to state systems can be vastly different; but when medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US something is certainly wrong.
I’m against American healthcare and support universal healthcare, but I agree. Most people are overhyping it but I do recognize their fears. But any type of fear mongering needs to stop.
JJ seems like he is really just wanting to talk about Beanie Babies or Ice Cream flavors instead of healthcare. Thank you so much for doing this deep dive for us. We really value your wisdom 💚
Great video and information as usual. Moral of the Canadian story (as a Canadian) - the politicians and legacy 'media' gaslight the issue and do a horrendously terrible disservice to Canadians that don't otherwise follow politics and/or are ignorant to the issue, by not providing context, by not explaining how the system works, by effectively lying and twisting proposed changes and updates to existing policies. Case in point - anything written by the Liberal biased Toronto Star.
Much like our friend JJ here, who likes to act like everyone thinks the US is this scary evil place with no insurance, and Canadians get free healthcare supported by the money tree. When i think most people understand that healthcare is payed for by taxes, and Americans generally have some form of healthcare provided through work. But skirts over any valid concerns that may entail. Like the cost of healthcare per capita, or whether your healthcare should be linked to employment. But instead, he just likes to use the bogeyman to characterize anyone with a different opinion.
"Canadians just assume Americans are uninsured and pay 6k everytime they need to see a doctor, that isn't true" my brother in Christ that's how much we pay WITH OUR HEALTH INSURANCE.
A quibble over "tragedy of the commons" -- the term is used for situations in which there is a finite resource with no coordination, so each user maximizes their use to the harm of others. The situation you describe is one in which there is a limited resource, but those sharing a cooperate by queuing. Sure, some do try to game the system, but it's not the classic tragedy of the commons -- a term used, as with the "Lord of the Flies" to dismiss the idea that people tend to cooperate.
American healthcare is a joke. The best healthcare you can get is Medicaid, which pretty much pays for everything to keep you alive and comfortable, and that's available to our poorest residents via their local social services which varies greatly from state to state. Medicaid is so great people feel forced to stay below the poverty level in order to retain it because if they had to pay for their medications and services it would be economically backwards... it wouldn't make sense. Compare that with the privatize healthcare that has become the norm in the past 20 years. When I worked at Home Depot in the early 00's my plan was $40 a pay period for myself and and it had a deductable (what you need to pay out of pocket for the year) of $500. Now private healthcare is 10X both the premium and the deductible on average. Another thing that drives me nuts is that American Universities' R&D basically subsidizes the costs of pharmaceutical development yet Americans spend so much more on prescriptions than anyone. We also have allowed the patent system to be gamed to benefit big pharma to the detriment of sick Americans. People die when they ration their meds. Point to all of this is that there is a real thing to fear when you talk about "Americanizing Healthcare". Wait times for anything suck, sure, but I rather wait while still seeing my doctor than to not have access to either the doctor or the surgery in the first place.
You didn't mention it but there ARE 100% private pay-out-of-your-pocket clinics in Canada. They started to appear 10-15 years ago. I'm actually considering using one since my last family doctor retired. Getting another one is next to impossible without having contacts with someone in the system in a very USSR-like kinda way. I now have to pay the incredible high taxes for public healthcare and pay again to actually get healthcare.
As an American counterpoint to this video, I'd like to submit "A terrible guide to the terrible terminology of U.S. Health Insurance" by Brian David Gilbert. It's comedic but illustrates issues that people have with the American system post-Obamacare, being vast and complex and loaded with "marketplace choice" where clarity, simplicity and universality might better serve people. Many "hospital bill nightmares" stem from people running into unintended pitfalls and mismatches in coverage networks, in addition to the rest of the American system's quirks. (I'm also not sure why JJ mentions that the Fraser Institute has a potential dubious reputation, "churning out" materials (in his own words) and then citing them largely uncritically and never doubling back. This isn't the first time I've had source material issues, and that's simply what I've caught through general knowledge without further vetting. JJ is a consummate entertainer, but anyone self-describing as "fair and balanced" is still staking out a politicized position on the matter, as anyone who's heard that used as a tagline can attest.)
The Fraser institute is Canada’s leading authority on wait times. As I said, some people think they are biased, but they are still the leading analysts of this issue.
It is an issue in the US. We pay health insurance AND still pay thousands in hospital bills. I had insurance but went to the ER for a bad UTI in 2015. After insurance, the hospital send me a bill for 6k. Most health insurance in the US is crap and doesn't cover enough
It’s not that there’s not enough doctors it’s that the government doesn’t want to add more. My partner has tried 7 years to get a residency in Canada from another country (Iran) and he hasn’t been hired. He went to a very good school and worked in Iran for many years.
The conversation around healthcare in Canada has always been rife with misnomers. Before the Obamacare Era, it was known as "free healthcare", an obvious misnomer since it is paid for by taxation. After that it was known as "single payer", another misnomer since Canadians use a combination of Medicare, private insurance, and relatively small out of pocket payments to pay for healthcare. The best way to describe it is as a "Medicare for all" system. When Bernie Sanders advocates for "Medicare for all" He is almost certainly talking about a system similar to the Canadian system.
Most Canadians take an "American style" healthcare system as being predatory, and for the rich. The actual navigation of the insurance policies that are offered go over most people's head unless they have been in insurance a long time.
@@stickjohnny However, none of the names are misnomers. "Free healthcare" is not a misnomer, because it free at the point of service, thus free. Everyone realises you can't get away from taxes, but at least they are definitely paying for something useful. Two things are certain in life death and taxes. "Single payer" is also not a misnomer, because single payer is a reference to how the system is run a single, ie. the government, is the only party that offers insurance, and thus is the only payer into the medical system. Now there are nuances in our system that make the label not perfect, but it is not a misnomer. "Medicare for all" only refers to the outcome.
As a Canadian who has worked in the American health insurance industry I think you kind of breezed over the most common expenses that Americans face - soaring premiums, and skyrocketing deductibles and coinsurance. Even with good insurance a typical American can still pay enormous amounts out of pocket for typical health issues. I'll take the Canadian system over that any day. Also, "medical necessity" is not some odd phenomena of Canadian healthcare which you seem to suggest - perhaps this was an oversight on your part. But American health insurance has very strict medically necessary requirements as well.
Before Obamacare my family paid exorbitant monthly rate to only have catastrophic insurance. Which means only after I spent $10,000 of my own money would insurance pick up the tab. We paid for all Dr visits out of pocket etc… I had 3 kids at the time. It was expensive AF. Obamacare made that kind of bullshit illegal for over 30 yr old people and families. Private doesn’t mean better.
I spent $800 USD (post-insurance deduction) for a growing pimple in my thigh that just needed anti-biotics. The way you described your system sounds like heaven.
Prices in the US are ridiculous. I am lucky because the health insurance I get from my job is entirely covered by my employer and they give me an additional 1000 each year to pay for healthcare, no strings attached. Despite this, I am still hesitant to go to the doctor due to the outrageous prices. I paid over $400 for services to get rid of toenail fungus. All they did was clip my nails and proscribe a cheap medication. I've also paid $500 to get punctal plugs installed to alleviate dry eye. I've had to pay nearly $300 to get a ringing ear checked out. They did some hearing tests and cleaned out my ear and then proscribed some cheap medication. It's ridiculous.
@@supernukey419 I don’t know but it wasn’t earned in my opinion. I told him what was going on, he believed me, took look to look like he was working, and wrote the prescription
I totally get that Canada’s healthcare system isn’t perfect… but it is objectively better for most people than the American system. For me personally, last month, I was mostly financially independent besides the health insurance I got from my dad’s work. Now, I’m reliant on food banks (charity run, not a government thing) and have had to get money from multiple family members to pay my rent. Why? Because I broke my ankle. I’ve paid over $2,000 in medical bills so far, and I haven’t gotten many of them yet. And that’s AFTER INSURANCE. I was actively trying to save for an emergency, but it happened so early on (I’m literally 22) that I wasn’t able to prepare in time. Not to mention the wages I’ve lost because of it. I would absolutely take long wait times over losing all of my savings in the past month. I know the grass looks greener or whatever, but this was a relatively minor injury. The American healthcare system only works for the rich. The Canadians that come to the US to get healthcare faster have the money to do so. Having wait times at least means you aren’t letting people die for being poor. Or letting them go into debt to the point where they have to choose between medical care and rent. 100% you can and should criticize the Canadian system, but to pretend like the American system isn’t that bad isn’t helping anyone
The “volountary” operations name is such a misnomer. If your quality of life is shit but you’re not dying, it’s technically “volountary” which is bs beyond all bs
A severe downside to the American healthcare system is that ALL medical expences (urgent or not) goes through privatized health insurence. With most health insurence being through your employer, losing your job could create unmanagable healthcare costs for those with chronic conditions. Additionally, many low income Americans forgo getting health insurence, gambling a higher weekly paycheck against the chance of brutal expences in the future. Brian David Gilbert created an award winning video of his own, detailing the ungodly complexity of american healthcare insurence and as an American I would kill for something to be publically funded. It doesn't have to be in the Canadian style as there are many contries we could emulate (Japan, France, and others) but as it stands America pays way too much for healthcare and Big Pharma has way too much lobbying power (keeping lifesaving drug prices extremely high). A testament to the awful state of american healthcare is its insuline prices and the fact that americans are rationing it, killing themselves because of how unaffordable it is.
I think that making something totally "Free" When it's a finite resource is always a bad idea. At work, I had $10 I could use every day on Lunch. Since the cafeteria closed before my shift every day I bought 3 red bulls which costed about $9.30 and then a bag of skittles. My work realized this and changed the way the system worked so that we didn't get a lunch credit, but everything was 50% cheaper than it is at a regular store. Even though a redbull is now about $1.50, I rarely buy them anymore. I think that adding a co-pay, even a small one, would likely stop some people from getting healthcare if they didn't need it.
this explains so many confusions i had about this! for example i was touring a school i applied to in canada (im american) and the student giving the tour told me that she used the insurance the school gave her as an opportunity to fix her teeth and i was so confused bc i just assumed dental was included 😅
A lot of Americans I've talked to assume that college is free in Canada as well, and while it is cheaper than the US, you absolutely still have to pay tuition.
Dental is often included on a bunch of student health plans. Pretty good value for your money. On the other hand, as a kid I was stunned to find out that dental wasn't covered by OHIP. We really need to get on that, and a national pharmacare program.
As a lifetime U.S. resident, let me assure you, those fears by Canadians you claim are unfounded are absolutely correct. I can see that proposal to switch to for-profit hospitals opening up a hemorrhage of doctors, nurses and quality care from the price-regulated public system to the profit-driven hospitals. When the U.S. allowed our Medicare dollars to go to for profit drug companies for prescription purchases, prices surged. Many, including those of us not on Medicare (a program which is generally for retirees) saw our drug prices soar. I turned to a Canadian supplier to stay alive during the 2000s, while I had no health insurance whatsoever despite my working fulltime. If Canada's health care system is a C+ right now instead of the A you want to be, please do not let it plummet to the F we have here by pulling the floor out from under it.
That said, I grasp that some reforms may be needed to reduce wait times. But unregulated for-profit hospitals are not the answer. Yes, expand the number of hospitals which provide care, but keep price controls in whatever way keeps the basic healthcare system from loosing its best to higher paying providers, and creating that two-tier system.
American here: Private health insurance sucks ass. It's an unbelievably shitty system that fucks insured people over with thousands of dollars of copays and deductibles. If you're not employed full time, there is no insurance for you. Canada's public system needs some work, but privatization is not the answer.
@@Plumlistic Our government? No thank you, they've fucked up enough already. Their meddling is already a big part of the reason why insurance and college tuition are so expensive.
@@ZIEMOWITIUS If the government just got out of healthcare I think that costs would plummet. The US could end up with the most affordable (and best) healthcare in the developed world.
Great video but you did fail to mention the sheer amount of people in the U.S., even the ones with health insurance, who simply choose not to go to the doctors or the hospital out of fear of it being too expensive. Not saying that the wait times in Canada aren't an issue but not wanting to receive care because of the price and the concept of medical debt are so common in the U.S. Also, the U.S. healthcare system is even less financially sustainable than the Canadian one. The U.S. spends the most of its GDP on healthcare expenses compared to other countries that have universal care, all for worse results.
As a Canadian who has had many surgeries, paid for things not fully covered out of pocket (because it was cheaper than using insurance), and recently had to have a planned surgery in America to great expense and effort... Privatization and financialization of the Canadian system in any way will continue to degrade it. Ontario Conservatives have been picking away at public healthcare for decades and looking for ways to make money off it, like with LTC and private nurses The issues with staffing come down to suppressed wages and intentional starving of the system by the current premier... with the sole intention to expedite privatization. Ontario has unprecedented funding lows individually and proportionally, compared to other provinces Putting care into pharmacists' hands instead of just paying doctors/nurses like they've been asking makes no sense, for ex. This is also privatization. Cancelling virtual care funding for public doctors but having health care nurses promote Maple (a private virtual healthcare service) and simultaneously changes laws to allow out of province doctors to staff the service is privatization. Not to mention all the issues with privatization from costs, pushing procedures, and poorer outcomes. America (like I experienced first hand, very intimately) has wait times, but then you have to deal with insurance and inhumane paperwork. The insurance industry is waiting to pounce on this country. Doug Ford is not brave or intelligent.
Not to say our health care is all that great compared to other similar-styled countries, I need to learn more about my preconceived notion about the US. I remember when Bernie Sanders was campaigning in 2020 and criticized their system, I did not hear anyone (his opponents) refuting his claims on that topic. He actually won a lot of people over that.
“Canada: Not as Bad as the US.” That said, speaking as an American who’s been on Obamacare, Medicaid, and a private employer’s plan - and who’s worked at an insurance brokerage firm - the American healthcare system is indeed pretty horrendous. Even for people with good insurance plans, it’s not unheard of to rack up a big bill. I had one crazy case where someone got treatment at an in-network hospital, but the specific surgeon who performed the treatment was out-of-network, which resulted in a bill around 50k. Putting the costs aside, who wants to spend our precious time on Earth navigating needlessly complex private insurance plans? For all that many Americans like to pump their chests over our lean-and-mean capitalism, our healthcare system is incredibly Byzantine. Also, it should be noted that employer-sponsored plans have increasingly higher deductibles and premiums. I just pray that I don’t have to use my insurance anytime soon. EDIT: Now, all of *that* said, don’t let your egos run amok, Canadians. Your country is mostly America-lite, minus the nutty gun culture. 😏
As an immigrant who came from India and worked for sometime with College of Nurses of Ontario in a limited capacity, just make immigrant doctors have it easier to start their practices 🙏 This is the quickest change to have at the very least
Someone from India told me that the healthcare in India is a combination of public/private - public for minor stuff, private for more urgent stuff. That was his experience, what about yours?
@@SWProductions100 so I come from a middle middle class background and I never needed to go to public hospitals. Many public hospitals are admittedly not the best in terms of Healthcare but they're about free for the poor. Treatment is always immediate though no matter what. India doesn't have enough doctors per capita last I remember seeing some stat, but I can promise no one has to wait even a month to get treatment. There are some public health insurances for the lower economic classes but even without that I personally know a few who didn't have to pay a penny without it during emergencies. Ambulances are cheap cause sometimes they're just a van but it gets the work done cause there are plenty of hospitals of all sizes and levels in proximity. I honestly do like the standard of Healthcare here once you do get the right service but my god the wait times are intolerable and getting a family doctor is unnecessarily a herculean task. Still don't have one 🥲
Everytime I’ve taken the ferry from Port Angeles, WA to Victoria, BC I’ve had conversations with Canadians who are coming to the US to escape the long wait times in Canadian hospitals. I’ve also talked to Americans who are going to Canada to get cheaper medicines.
Sorta a grass is greener type of thing.
Clearly Mexico has the best system among The Three Amigos
@@PikeProductions23 yeah but nobody online talks about Mexico as much as the US and Canada
@@PikeProductions23 unironically yes, they have universal public healthcare plus private options at a wide variety of price points.
@@PikeProductions23 probably.
I live in Germany and we have a mix of public and private healthcare that works just fine. Healthcare is still universal but you have a choice between publicly funded and privately funded coverage. The public health coverage is also not run by the government but by independent non-profit insurance houses. You can choose between different providers both within the public and private system. The private hospitals work with public providers as well. It's a lot more decentralized than the Canadian or (especially) UK system but still manages to provide a very high level of care.
How do you chose? Like when do you make the decision?
Is the public option cheaper?
@@logo2462
Yes it is. The private healthcare system in Germany is usually for people with a high income or who work for the government.
@@JJMcCullough You can only opt for the private healthcare if you are self-employed, are a public servant or earn above €67k a year. Once you go private, it is VERY difficult to go back to public. The bad side of public healthcare is that your choice of appointment times is usually more limited and you don't get perks e.g. nicer beds or TV or WiFi in hospitals. The downside of the private system is that your rates are risk-based. So the older and sicker you get, the more you have to pay. Also, if private, you usually have to pay in advance out of pocket and get reimbursed by the insurance. This is very problematic for the old and sick. This is exactly why the system is one-way, to prevent using cheap private insurance while young and healthy and later switching to public when old and sick.
Thank you for educating Canadians that the alternative doesn’t have to be “American-style”. Im a Canadian that lived and worked in Germany for years. Very good 2-tier system that provides excellent care to all. Excellent health services to support new mothers, too.
As a type 1 diabetic my anger for the US system and emphasis of profits over patients. I’m okay with paying for my insulin but I’m tired of being charged $400 (up from $150 when I was diagnosed) for a drug that cost $1 to make and hasn’t changed. Canada isn’t perfect clearly. But I wouldn’t be broke because of my lifelong illness.
In Sweden, you can only pay at max 3600 SEK (350 USD) per year for medication; everything after that is covered by taxes, since it's deemed that you actually need it. It's a way to avoid people abusing a free system, by forcing everyone to pay a certain amount; an amount most people would prefer to avoid.
What type of insulin do you use? I'm interested in this topic but I'm not a diabetic. Are there different varieties and generics vs name brand and newer vs older?
Seems to me that the US has the worst of both worlds: Enough government regulation and meddling to keep competition from lowering prices, but not enough to keep prices low directly.
@@paulhamrick3943 There are many different delivery methods; some of the newer autoinjector types operate similar to a prodrug, in that they're slowly released into the body without needing additional doses throughout the day. Those tend to be more expensive due to lasting patents, but the basic "vial of insulin" that many Americans rely so dearly on is still laughably cheap to produce yet sold for $10+/dose.
@@paulhamrick3943 to clarify I am using an insulin pump that uses short term acting insulin here in the USA the common brands are Novolog and Humalog. (Basically identical) I use Humalog currently which is produced by Lilly.
-in addition that pump I own costs 10k to purchase plus an additional 6-7k for a CGM system. And all of the ongoing purchases you need for those supplies.
Specialized doctors in Canada can also decline your referral if they deem your problem “not serious enough”. Imagine waiting for months to hear back from a clinic after your GP referred you, only to learn that they are not going to see you. Happened to me twice
I didnt even know that. Canadian system is terrible. I say this as a Canadian myself. Living in South Korea I can walk into any specialist office without an appointment and pay just a few dollars with the government paying most of the tab. Not free but not expensive. Also very fast. A mixed system I guess. Private and public. Sorry to hear about your difficulties.
My problem has been I can't get a GP to listen to me long enough to even consider a referral to a specialist. They literally have no interest in preventative medicine. You have to be obviously sick to get anywhere in the system.
@@kellycarter4944 yes sadly. I think doctors and medical staff must be under budgetary pressure to avoid medical tests or referrals. It is rationing. It's not like they can fired or sued for bad service or medical treatment. Canada's medical system is broken and 100 per cent free is not 100 per cent quality. I don't mind paying a small amount over here to go to specialists directly and to get fast service.
@@sho8631 of course it is it's not the NHS I can go to my GP, A&E or call an ambulance it's all pre paid by this think called taxes
@@jamessullivan6031 so is Canada's paid by taxes but free to the user in the sense you pay no fees at the time. Either way bad service, shortages, long waits, rationing, etc.
A supply issue with surgeons in a country like Canada, is primarily a price controls issue.
Going to the ER for non-emergencies is exacerbated by the generally poor service schedules of clinics: Canada's health insurance systems have failed to enable the much more efficient surgery centers and urgent care centers that are common in more functional systems. If you are scheduled for a surgery, you end up in an emergency hospital. If you need a doctor to write you a prescription for an ear antibiotic because you got a double ear infection in Lake Huron... but it's the weekend, or it's after about 6PM, too bad, you end up at an emergency department.
A centralized system would undoubtedly yield more consistently positive results; delegating it to the provinces did nothing but create over a dozen different healthcare systems that are all less efficient than they could be. (Also sets the stage for provinces saying raising pay for doctors would just negatively impact other provinces.)
Bold of you to assume we can even go see a doctor if it's b4 6 pm.
I've been on a waiting list to get a doctor for 3 years, and according to the gov, I might get one in 5 years. And I'm on the priority list due to a chronic issue
Very brave of JJ to make this video, considering his audience leans strongly to the left, and is a bit on the anti American side. This doesn't even mention that most of the world takes American medical advancements to improve their systems, meaning if there was no US, their systems would be worse. I think there are things the US and European nations can learn from each other in healthcare, although I would point out that it is much easier to administer a collectivized system in nations that where the population is much closer together. That being said, I am definitely open to making American healthcare more European. It's just that for me the jury is still out on whether American or European style healthcare is better, as it seems that depending on your focus, relating to quality of care, costs and wait time would affect how you answer it.
I'd also just say that, and this might be going a little deep here, the US' place as the world's most powerful and influential nation plays a role in how this topic is discussed, both within the US (between opposing sides) and outside of the US. Because of the US' status as top dog in influence, power, and in achievements and might in many things, many countries (particularly Western countries, which are more culturally similar and thus feel more of a rivalry with US) in response have seized on issues that the US either ostensibly has, or actually has, and displays openly, as a way to tell their population "see, you don't have to feel overawed about the US' position relative to our country because of..."
Not to trivialize the problems that would fall under this category, but most of them are problems that other nations have as well or things that are exaggerated to be in the US compared to other countries (any level of racism, sexism etc) by the US media, which leans left, so will emphasize them both for views and to advance their narrative. Or they are things that the US actually doesn't do worse than other nations but is simplified and misrepresented by foreign nations and/or people in the US themselves to make them think that they do, or are things that are a function of having a much larger, more diverse, heterogeneous and spread out population than other Western countries. The ironic thing is that foreigners constantly complain about Americans lacking specific knowledge of their countries or making generalizations, while they themselves make generalizations and lack knowledge of the US. But what they do is worse, because they are much more exposed to the US, American media, way of life etc than vice versa. And the left and media in America plays into this for a few reasons;
The media likes attention grabbing stories. And many Americans, of any persuasion, do have a sense that they are the center of the world, so any major events in the US are widely broadcast everywhere. And people like to make grand statements with "America is" as the prefix, because the fact that the US is so influential in the world will make their statement, whether wrong or right, carry weight. The US is almost subconsciously seen as the "World Society," whereas making grand statements saying "Denmark this" or "New Zealand that" would seem a little too colloquial. I also suspect that the left in the US latches on to narratives (true and false ones) of country x doing better than the US in this, because they think that the American right, which is extremely patriotic, will be swayed to do what the left wants just so that the left will stop saying "country x is better than America in this."
Lastly, in comparing the US to any other country, Americans getting together to say that their country is better than country x feels like punching down, while people from another country getting together to hate on the US feels like punching up, which is why you get dynamics where people favor one country over the US. And while it affects the US the most, you see this in any comparison of similar countries in which one country is bigger and more influential than the other. Watch any UK v Ireland or Australia v New Zealand video, and you'll never see the majority of comments favoring the UK over Ireland or Australia over New Zealand.
What does this have to do with healthcare? Well this dynamic lends itself to the aforementioned preconceived negative and incorrect notions about American healthcare from foreigners, and the romanticization of foreign (for example Canadian) healthcare within the US, mainly on the left. It's along the lines of "ACTUALLY, these countries are better than the US because..." line of thinking. And because Canada for example is overshadowed by the US in most things, the romanticization of healthcare is something that becomes a rock that cannot be moved
@@AW-zk5qb JJ is a blatant conservative and its well known in Canada. His audience is NOT left wing I promise you. Its right wing Americans. He's the kind who uses American ignorance to invent problems and lie about my country. This video for example is painfully not objective and ignores the actual problem and how private clinics will do NOTHING to solve our problem. This is propaganda meant to get Americans to pressure my country to drop socialized medicine and its pathetic.
@@AW-zk5qb OMG, so many words used to still saynsomething so ignorant...
In the US, there seems to be an inverse problem where many people assume every other country has an NHS style system of almost entirely government run healthcare, which I find tends to erase a lot of nuance out of discussions on how to improve American healthcare going forward.
not to mention michael moore praised england of literally all countries
I think a major difference is few Americans feel a patriotic need to defend their country's system out of a sense of national pride and identity.
@@MsZsc If Michael Moore said the sky was blue, I'd go outside to check.
Look at the South Korean system. It is a private and public mix. It is cheap and fast. Government pays some but not all. But they do negotiate pricing with all the stakeholders.
Yep.
I’ve lived in South Louisiana, USA my whole life, and I’ll tell you from personal experience that you have the “Americanized” or “privatized” healthcare system boogyman correct. My daughter had a double kidney infection and had to spend 3 days in the hospital and we walked out $4k in debt (WITH THE BEST INSURANCE IN THE STATE). Earlier this year, I was bit by a cat and it became septic. Spent 5 days in the hospital and $5k in debt (same insurance.) Heaven forbid you develop cancer and don’t have a specific cancer policy (you saw that right: most insurance policies DO NOT COVER catastrophic illnesses and require a separate policy that you need to pay IN ADDITION TO your regular premiums.) It’s awful down here people! Don’t let them take it from you when we’re trying to get some semblance of what you have!
DON’T LET THEM PRIVATIZE YOUR HEALTHCARE! I ENVY THAT ALL YOU NEED ARE REFORMS! WE ARE SOOOO FAR FROM ANYTHING LIKE THAT. THE FEAR IS WELL FOUNDED!!!!
Two anecdotal stories as a Canadian citizen living and working in the US.
1) Until my insurance from my employer kicked in, it was slightly cheaper for me to fly back to Canada, pay out of pocket to see my old doctor, take my prescription for an asthma inhaler over to Shoppers Drug Mart, pay for it and to fly back, than it was to pay a local doctor and fill that prescription around the corner from my NYC apartment. Taking the exchange rate into account, it was about $10 cheaper. And I got to see my parents, so there’s that.
2) I have some school friends who are doctors in Canada, and they wish the Canadian system had the co-pays that I now dish out in the US. They feel that too many Canadians take the “free” in “free health care” and will go to the doctor for any minor or even imagined thing, even after they themselves have told patients that they’re fine and don’t need to come back. They feel that if Canadians had to pay something - even if it were reimbursed in the case of lower income people - it would give patients pause.
Interesting, here in Germany you don't pay for visiting the doctor too, only like 5 bucks for some conscription medicine, but I have never heard of people going to the doctor for no reason, maybe local differences but here it works just fine
in response to number 2, that's why i use telehealth services for minor things before doing anything, like going to emerg or a walk-in, i'm not tryna waste people's time. i had my first migraine attack a few weeks ago with an aura (pretty scary! thought i was going blind!) and the nurses were great in directing me as to how to care for myself at home, plus they got back to me super quick. the times where i knew "oh lord i need to call an ambulance/go to emerg" were: two drug overdoses and when my ear was profusely bleeding. in those events, there was no wait time i could complain about at all, because they were actual emergencies lol.
We have a lot of hypochondriacs in the US, too.
Also, under the for-profit model the opposite problem tends to occur, where hospitals will too hastily turn recovering people back out onto the street in order to free up the availability of beds for a constant supply of new paying patients. Toward the end of his life, my dad practically used the private ambulance service as his personal taxi because the hospital kept sending him home without first waiting for his infections to clear, and he would always have to return a week or so later. Sometimes the ambulance service wouldn't even respond to calls from his house, or the responders would recognize him and refuse to take him back. Which is understandable. From their perspective my father was just abusing a vital service. In reality the hospital felt he was a lost cause and would rather he just died at home, not taking up a hospital bed from another paying customer
@@timteichmann6830 specifically in the case of my friends, who are both pediatricians, it’s parents bringing their children in for every little sniffle. They’ll be told they’re fine, and then they’re back at the doctors the next day, saying “I know you said they’re fine, but I just want to make extra sure!” As doctors, they can’t refuse the request, but it takes them away from dealing with children who are actually sick. Plus they still have to bill the government for each of these visits.
About your number two point, I doubt that would work. In Portugal people now pay small amounts (5 to 20 euros) and it doesn't stop them. Doesn't stop them when they pay 50 at a private doctor.
In America there’s this perception that Canadians have it much better because of the “free health care”. Didn’t realize you still need private insurance for stuff like dentistry and optometrists.
Yes, but it's still better than going bankrupt if you get into a car accident; or have a burst appendix.
For dentistry at least, that might soon be changing thanks to the NDP agreement at the federal level.
@@ms_cartographer this is such bullshit lol. The whole "bankrupt because of car accident" is the oldest pre programmed Canadian response in the book. Most Americans do not have this experience lol.
@@dunnowy123 Well, you've never experienced American insurance companies then huh. When you get an $11,000 Bill after your insurance decided that nah they won't cover your surgery for Reasons after pre approving coverage of the surgery you'll understand
@@dunnowy123 medical bankruptcy is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US by a long shot
I had a Canadian family member who contracted an easily preventable cancer due to how slow the wait times are. What's worse is the government then refused to treat the cancer (that they essentially gave her) because it was too expensive. For what it's worth she was able to prolong her life by flying to America for private treatment, however she did still eventually die from it. People need to grow up and acknowledge that there's no "perfect" modern healthcare system. All you can do is prioritize certain things at the cost of others.
@@shorewall When a country's population is dominated by those who are of old age they either need to bring in more high skilled workers, raise the retirement age, raise taxes or a combination of the three. It doesn't help that the country also has a low birth rate, due to the expenses of having a child. Raising taxes or moving to a private insurance just exacerbates the problem. It's a very complex issue where reform brings its own problems that we have to solve. The days of a booming population is over, and a lot of people are pushing back or abandoning their dreams of having a home, or a family, because it's too expensive.
You hit the nail on the head. Here in Ontario, I had to wait almost 2 years just to be placed in therapy for mental health, and it was grueling. However, the private clinics were way too costly, and I couldn't afford to go, even with insurance. While I appreciate that I had treatment paid for by my government, those who fantasize our system are usually those who are terminally online, or they're American.
Contracted cancer? Like from hpv?
American healthcare is great! One of the highest quality in the world, if you could afford it!
I highly doubt that. The government does not refuse medically necessary care. Maybe she had requested experimental treatment and the government may have determined that there wasn't enough data to support it. But the government does not deny care because its "too expensive" when its medically necessary.
Canada really loves to adopt this sort of 'ride or die' pessimism, where the statue quo in everything from real estate to telecom to healthcare is defended no matter how bad they get on the assumption that whatever alternative we came up with would certainly be worse.
I think that's a more recent phenomenon and a symptom of the closing days of neo liberalism. No one really knows what to do next. Do we continue on with neo liberalism and privatize or try something different or even try and improve the system we have (but no one wants to pay for)?
Who the hell do you know thats defending the Canadian telecom industry?!
@@sadas1211 Bell lol
Yes, and bonus points for the ones that are even remotely like anything American...it seems many Canadians would rather stab themselves in the eye with a fork than admit anything from the US may be on par with, or even superior to a Canadian policy.
what's the root of this line of thought?
If a system is utterly broken, what are you losing to try something else?
I work at a private diagnostic clinic in BC and over time it’s been interesting to see the severity of patients as wait times increase. There are people with critical heart blockages that are on 9 month wait lists for a 15 min CT in a public facility. As well we do pain injections for peoples backs. They are supposed to get them every 3 months and at the hospital there is a 6 month wait list. The result is that some people end up being disabled while they are on this list to simply get an injection in their back. Our system has bottle necks all over the place and it hard to know where is best to focus to relieve it.
Would the private clinic that you work at be willing to accept the BC Care card for payments and charge the government instead of the patient? If the answer to that is yes then your private clinic is no different than many peoples family doctor or the walk in clinic a couple blocks away.
@@alexmcintyre8229 no it’s private. You pay before any procedure.
I am a Canadian living in Japan. Japan has a national health insurance but you still have to pay up to about 10%. In the past, a doctor recommended I get an MRI. I was able to book one in a matter of days. I think I paid about $75. I have never had the problem of waiting for a procedure here. I also have to go to a clinic to get medication every 3 months. I wait less than an hour and pay about $10. Mind you, the Japanese government is deep in debt and I do not know how much of that is healthcare related.
$75 is a bargain! Locally where I live in the United States, they run $1500 or more, and despite breaking my neck, my insurance company required cheaper radiological tests first, and it would only pay for both of my spiblnal fusions after both of these tests were done. Luckily, I only had a $1500 deductible despite my medical bills running around $300,000-$2,000,000 yearly.
I think it's a bit of a strawman to assume you can only get hit with outrageous medical bills in the US if you're uninsured. As you hint at in the video, most Americans ARE insured, yet loads of Americans have or have had medical debt which is a foreign concept to people in most developed nations. As an American who lived in Europe for about six and a half years, I can assure you that, by comparison, it is a terrible system even when you have good insurance because of the unnecessary hassles like high co-pays, deductibles, and "in-network" healthcare providers. Everyone I know in America has either had an awful experience themselves or knows someone that's had an awful experience with their insurer charging them ludicrous amounts of money or otherwise fighting them on what they'll cover. I just moved to Quebec so I can't speak on the problems with the Canuck system yet, but I can't imagine it being worse than what I experienced in America.
You are all over the place, your life must be interesting 🙂
I'm American, and CAN CONFIRM. I've had to declare bankruptcy twice, the last time I did I had insurance.
Exactly. Even our good insurance isn't all that good in the grand scheme of things.
My mom is permanently disabled and cannot work. Because her income is zero, she doesn’t qualify for reduced health insurance through obamacare. She also doesn’t qualify for medicaid because she lives with me. She ALSO doesn’t qualify for disability insurance because she was a stay-at-home mom before becoming disabled. She has regular surgeries because of her health problems and is in thousands of dollars in medical debt with no way to pay it. Our system in America is so fundamentally flawed.
This. Know plenty of US folks with excellent insurance that get hit with huge bills, even for things like childbirth. As rough as our system is in Canada, it's a far sight better
Comedian Emo Philips had a bit that went roughly: "My father had a heart attack recently, and it's sad. Under the American Health Care System, we ended up losing the house. Whereas under the Canadian Health Care System, we would have inherited it."
Heart attacks are usually high priority in Canada...plus looking at the data in 2005 America had a mortality rate from heart attacks of 12% (13% chance you'd die if you had a heart attack), while in Canada it was 11%... basically the same.....
@@mooftwosnum1fan480 Who cares, it's a funny joke.
@@shrimpflea because everybody knows political jokes are the funniest kind
What’s funny is that I’m pretty sure Canadian has pretty strict inheritance taxes
Your insane im canadian the government taxes all inheritance
I'm an oncologist. A specific absudity to highlight one of the many ineffeciencies of our system:
For certain cancers (certain scenarios in colorectal in particular), there are two chemotherapies that are roughly equivalent in efficacy. One is a pill (capecitabine), the other is an iv infusion (5-fluorouracil).
The iv requires a small procedure to insert a large Iv into the chest wall for administration, requires visits to the oncologist every 2 weeks instead of three, requires more "chair time" where a nurse supervises the injection, and in some cases takes 6 months instead of 3.
The pill has slightly more side effects, and the drug itself costs slightly more, but not when all the extra resources are factored in.
Many provinces only cover the iv, not the pill.
Why? Because they administer it "in a hospital", and therefore its paid for. The pill is from a pharmacy, so its not. Even though them just paying for the drug would save them money.
Worse for patients, worse for the system.
And in which country do you practice?
I'm a Canadian who has lived in the USA and is fairly familiar with both healthcare systems. This video is good, though it seems light on the issue of choice and competition, regarding routine healthcare. In Canada, you are often fortunate to "get" (i.e. be assigned) a family doctor in smaller provinces: there is no sense of choosing among doctors. In the USA (_provided you have health insurance_, and live in an urban area), staff are well aware of the competition of the marketplace: you can "fire" your family doctor and get another one. This is just an observation. I am very happy to be back in Canada and mostly happy with the system, but this was a noticeable difference between the two.
You are comparing small provinces to an urban area in the U.S and it feels like you are insinuating that you can't switch your doctor even in an urban area in Canada which is silly, it is something I just did. I don't doubt there are less doctors in rural areas but I don't think that has anything to do with particular failing in the Canadian healthcare system, and is just like that everywhere in the world that is sparely populated.
I'm an American who just moved to Toronto with my Canadian fiance two years ago. From what I've seen the Canadian system is really great in the sense that people don't have to seek out a good employer in order to get good insurance. However, the wait times are getting really, really bad. I am very concerned about it getting worse. I've also heard multiple Canadians say how important it is that they get/maintain a job that provides additional insurance/HC benefits.
@@RoughRunnerAce98 I haven't used the Canadian healthcare system, but as a rural American I can confirm that it's often possible to change doctors at will even in very rural areas here. (Even if you are an hour away from Doctor #2, then you're probably most of an hour away from Doctor #1 anyway.)
@@philipmcniel4908 There is nothing preventing you from switching doctors even in rural areas in Canada, it just has the same drawbacks as anywhere else in the world. Like you mentioned, it probably yields no benefit if all you are considering is distance from home, since its a rural area. I don't know what the first commenter is suggesting, for any reason if you don't want to work with a specific family doctor there isn't anything stopping you from switching in Canada in normal circumstances where there are other doctors taking new patients as far as I'm aware. We have the choice of family doctors here. My cousin lives an hour away from her family doctor because she liked and kept hers even when she moved away and can consult with the doctor over the phone...
The Canadian systems need improvements, and ideally, to be merged into a central system to cut costs and ensure quality care across the country.
It's still a heck of a lot better than the US one for 99.9% of people though. ,(I say this as an indigenous Canadian who's experienced some pretty overt medical racism [Told by the first doc I saw re: ADHD following my diagnosis that "we don't really give stimulants to natives"] as has some of my family [docs ran a tox screen on my mother because she was complaining of 10/10 back pain in hospital. She was having an aortic dissection, and they waited 4 hours for the screen to come back negative before they did basic imaging and realized her aorta was dilated to over twice its normal size.])
The use of Dr Mario sound effects and visual styles in a video about healthcare does not go unnoticed or unappreciated. 😀
In Finland we have a mixed system. The government refunds you for mandated stuff performed by a private doctor or sometimes pays the doctor directly. But the government sets the price, so it can’t balloon. And if your doctor tries to gouge you, you can use the state system which is very good, though you do have wait times for non critical stuff. My husband has never had private insurance. 🙃 I don’t think your politician is exploring a bad route.
I can assure you as an American who has never lacked health insurance that the American healthcare system is a terror to inhabit even with fairly good private insurance. For instance, when a bill for my child’s birth was sent to an old address and sent to debt collectors. Or the thousands or millions of unwanted jobs people keep because they need the coverage.
Oh there is also going to an in-network hospital and discovering two months later that a random anesthesiologist is out of network and you are responsible for their arbitrarily determined enormous fee.
I'm American and watched the whole video, I know you're trying to be balanced and bring Canadians down a peg off their high horse, but I think you understated how much of a scam our healthcare system is in the USA.
While it is true most Americans have insurance highly subsidized through their employers, and all of the big hospitals are "non profit" (I put that in quotes for a reason), that doesn't stop these hospitals from charging your insurance company (or you the individual if you don't have insurance) absolutely asasine amounts of money for everything while the administrators who run the hospital rake in huge salaries. When my wife gave birth the non profit hospital charged my insurance company over $100,000 and I had to pay like $2,500 out of pocket even though my deductible was $500 because of small print. And it trickles down: hospitals scam insurance companies, insurance companies scam customers.
And while medicaid and medicare exist good luck getting affordable insurance if you don't qualify for those programs and your job doesn't give you coverage (part time jobs aren't required to have a medical plan). Obamacare is expensive out of pocket and has really high deductibles.
What a fucking joke while communism takes over Canada JJ bla bla... Canada sucks.
Obamacare is based on income. When I was a student and my wife was a teacher, my bill was 27 a month. Its higher now that I work but its still well under the old way.
As an American (and particularly one from an economically-depressed rural area where MANY people are on Medicaid), I have two thoughts about this topic:
-First, the "medically-necessary" thing is _very_ open to interpretation by bureaucrats. I personally know someone who was on Medicaid and had an impacted wisdom tooth (meaning that it was growing sideways into one of his other teeth, and--in the professional opinion of his dentist--would become infected if not removed in time). Yes, Medicaid can have programs for dental and vision coverage "on the side," as I understand it, since it's designed for the poor who might not be able to afford such things. Anyway, this person was told by Medicaid that the extraction was not considered medically necessary because he wasn't infected, so he would have to wait until it got infected--which was inevitable according to his dentist, remember?--before having it removed. He consulted the office of the oral surgeon to whom he'd been referred, and asked about paying out-of-pocket (he had some kind and generous people in his life who were willing to help him do so), and they said they couldn't let people on his state's Medicaid program do that. (I presume this is because they don't want to pay for the medically-necessary treatment of complications caused by medically-unnecessary procedures, e.g. if you get an infection following cosmetic surgery.) Anyway, this guy had to go off Medicaid, and only after that paperwork was approved was he able to get his wisdom tooth removed, by which point it had been bothering him for awhile.
-Second, about the first critique mentioned in Part 5, about private providers charging the government more than publically-owned providers: *_That's kind of the point!_* Anyone who has taken a basic macroeconomics class has seen a supply curve, which is a visual representation of how the higher-priced something is, the more suppliers will be incentivized to exist. If the government artificially sets a price cap, that artificially also caps the number of suppliers to the number who are willing to provide a service for the government-decreed price. I would argue that Canada's wait times may, at least in part, be a result of this inelasticity of supply (though I can't say for certain with my limited knowledge of the situation of Canadian healthcare). Paying a bit more for private providers, in this model, is simply the price of moving up to a higher point on the supply curve.
If they’re worried of a medical supply, then the government should have an incentive to invest in public medical schools big-time
The US has ~100% overall higher cost for healthcare compared to Canada. The US costs have resulted in a supply curve where the US has primary care access at 87% versus 86% in Canada. Canadian family doctors (GPs) are private providers. See “Canada ranks last in primary health care access among 10 wealthy countries: report”. In the private surgery provision experiments the provinces have run not only were the costs higher (despite cherry-picking the uncomplicated cases), the provincial wait times ended up increasing. Private provision is a hackneyed fake solution. It is sham innovation.
Private clinics can work to help alleviate the strain on Canada’s public hospitals, as long as they are non-profit, price-controlled, and extremely regulated. That’ll be the only way to avoid greed from taking over and truly Americanizing Canadian health care.
I, an American, found a breast lump in January 2021. I didn’t have insurance at the time, so I was afraid to get it checked out-I’d only just finished paying off my student loans, I was more afraid of another 10 years of life-crippling debt than of having cancer. Still, I definitely was also afraid of having cancer, so I set myself to the task of getting a job with healthcare so I could go check it out-as soon as my temporary work contract ended, 3 months later. But the first job I got (in a rush) was really exhausting, and after the 3 months of waiting for the healthcare to kick in I was like “I could not do this job on chemo, it would kill me,” so I had to quit and go find a different job and wait another 3 months for the new healthcare to kick in. But then at the new job, my role was not well defined and I didn’t feel settled and confident the job was going to last. I really needed to be in a good, stable situation to take the hit, to handle both the cost and the treatment itself if it came to that… Ultimately I didn’t get it checked out until over a year and a half after I first worried there was something wrong. Fortunately I finally did get it checked, and I don’t have cancer, yay! Now I just have to pay off the $3700 bill for all the tests, because almost nothing on my terrible insurance is covered until you hit the $4300 deductible. So like, a 27-week wait-time seems *pretty tame* to me.
I think it's important to note that the issue isn't that reformers want "American Healthcare" because of experiences like you have described. The issue is almost any reform is scrutinized for if it appears "American" by the nationalists. This is frustrating because it shuts down avenues for improvement. Many developed countries that have objectively better healthcare outcomes than Canada have elements to their system that get rejected for being "too American" here.
@@PaigeMTL There are other reasons the reforms are being called "American" that he didn't have time to mention. There are a lot of reasons people distrust Ford's statements. Ford has done a lot of shady things like anti-strike, budget cuts, and over working people. This change comes off as a problem Ford created, and now is something he wants to claim he can solve.
True. There are so many reasons someone might be temporarily without insurance and god forbid anything happen during that time. My deductible is $6k so it pretty much pays for nothing unless it’s catastrophic. It also doesn’t cover the usuals, dental, vision, mental health, etc. that’s all out of pocket. Its also SO HARD to find a doctor in-network. I had to travel 45 minutes away to see an ENT. My ex BROKE HIS HAND and refused to go to the hospital because he didn’t have insurance. His hand is pretty messed up now from it and just about everyone i know had a similar story. I tell all my friends that if I ever have a medical emergency, call me an uber because I can’t afford an ambulance. Also side note. If you are fortunate enough to be able to afford private insurance, you better be relatively healthy because preexisting conditions will jack up your premium sky high, or flat out disqualify you for some programs.
Well... I, an American agree. My first introduction to a waiting list had been from the UK, and they usually have already set ones, you know you'll have to wait, and oftentimes it's as high as 55 weeks..
However, people with cancer probably shouldn't and wouldn't wait almost 30 weeks, it would be too late..
I waited five years for hip surgery here in Canada. Many people end up dying on our waitlists awaiting cancer treatment.
One topic worth mentioning for US healthcare that is seldom known or reported: We have non-profit and for-profit hospitals, they are very different in multiple ways but mostly in payment. The non-profit ones are much better if you're uninsured because they will offer a financial form you fill out and hand them a pay stub from your job, or certify you're jobless through tax papers and then boom: all bills are wiped. If you go to a for-profit hospital this may or may not happen because US law only requires this for non-profit. It's counted as Charity Work and the non-profit gets federal reimbursements.
One of the main things that really surprised me was learning that they don't offer mental health care.
Psychiatry is covered. Psychology is not.
we have a really old health care system model, back when you just put people in mental asylums and that was "mental health" treatment. It's changed so much, but the system hasn't kept up with treatments.
That is one of the reasons we have a extremely high homeless , hungry population. They are all over every street even while -30 degree...very sad with this Liberal NDP government
Last year I discovered I had a seemingly-minor debilitating disease from going to a local drop-in medical centre here in Canada, and was promptly told that I should just go to the ER with this in spite of them setting up a meeting with a surgeon and prescribing antibiotics. I didn't think it seemed that serious considering what I imagined people go to ER for, and my parents agreed, but it turned out to be a necessary way to avoid a 5 MONTH WAIT just to see a surgeon who would then set up another half-year wait for the surgery to actually happen. Once my condition got so bad I was genuinely worried for my life a while later I did go to the ER where I waited for at least 3 hours to be examined. I was told by the doctors that I would need to wait another 6 MONTHS for examination by a better expert doctor or else put on a cancellation waiting list. I took the latter, obviously, and managed to get examined only 2 weeks later by some great luck. And again the offer of some months or cancellation. The latter finally got me in to get my condition alleviated after another few weeks. All told I had to wait 53 days, but as you can see it could have been a lot worse if people went by the book. My faith in this Canadian healthcare myth has been forever shattered, though I can't say I wasn't grateful to not have to pay for the doctors' time.
Some advantages to a two tiered approach to health care:
1: gives Canadians an option to keep their money (their own or fundraised) inside Canada. Taxes collected from private healthcare centre helps fund public healthcare.
2: removes names from the wait list for public health centres thereby speeding up service for those who cannot afford to pay privately.
3: Creates a competitive environment for both private and public where the patient will have better options on both sides
4: attract doctors who might prefer a private business model over a publicly-funded model thereby increasing the supply of doctors.
US-based guy here. I'm sure both of our systems have their pros and cons, but I must say the way you downplayed the number of people completely screwed over by being uninsured/underinsured doesn't reflect my experience here. The private insurance companies and hospitals try every angle to screw us over. I have a great employer and some of the best insurance available, and I still deal with the worst surprise bills. It's part of life and it's super stressful. It's no wonder one of the biggest categories on GoFundMe is fundraising for healthcare. Super sad. Also, our wait times and supply issue seems to be getting worse, so I don't see how our capitalist healthcare system even does a good job there. It's bizarre.
Aside from my critique of how you underplayed the issues with our system, I did enjoy learning some new things about your Canadian system. Seems like you all have a good foundation to build upon and I wish you all luck!
Canadian here. I just came back from a trip to USA where my spouse had cancer surgically removed completely.
Expensive AF, but also fast and efficient AF.
The wait time in Canada was 8 months just for an analysis (then a longer wait for surgery).
So, ya, in some ways the US system is better.
US healthcare is abysmal. Wait times are vastly over exaggerated. Sure if you have something that is elective you may have to wait a little longer but if it is an emergency you get seen immediately. It is prioritized on need not money like in the US.
It's kind of similar to the mexican healthcare in the way that the IMSS (instituto Mexicano de seguridad social) tends to place absurdly long wait lists to important operations in a way that it's out of the cuestion to wait. So most mexicans end up goint to a private hospital, which defeats the purpose of an universal healthcare. It's even worst since you can't opt out on paying the health care tax.
Great video, asl always
Even with all the issues, I would still take the Canadian system over the american one any day of the week. Nearly every life decision I ever make, and dozens of hours of my life a month, are devoted solely to managing my healthcare expenses and min-maxing treatments to afford the most care possible. It is such a massive toll on my mental health, my physical health, and my finances. This doesn't make the canadian system perfect of course, far from it, and you go into many of the issues here. These can, and should, be addressed. But still.
And those issues CAN be addressed. If Canadians could get off their anti american high horse for like, a day, a lot could be addressed.
The reply to any valid critique of Canadian healthcare is ALWAYS shitting on the US.
What problem does that solve? None.
It's a much better use of energy to find unique solutions for unique Canadian problems.
It doesn’t have to be American style! It can be a 2-tier system that works very well for all, like in many other parts of the world that are Not America .
@@alligator_pie Or federalize it and make the one-tier system less expensive and make it easier to address shortages in a given area.
you’re obsessed with us 🇺🇸
Depending on what medical problems you are managing, in Canada you may have been recommended for euthanasia by now. I'm not joking.
Ordinary chronic disease sufferers are being counselled into suicide by Canada's health systems.
A JJ video on this topic has been on my wishlist for so long.
An interesting sub-topic would be medical tourism. I have seen many Canadians in Mexican border towns with the US getting dentistry, health care and prescriptions. In fact some Mexican towns basically solely exist for medical tourism.
As a Brit, I think the Canadian system works very similarly to the NHS so this is an interesting video
I also think a lot of the ‘boogeyman stereotypes’ of American healthcare being widely inaccessible are quite common in the UK as people don’t really understand the US system
What a fucking joke while communism takes over Canada JJ bla bla bla... Canada sucks.
Considering medical specialists & doctors are leaving Ontario in droves (I've had two doctors move to the US out of frustration with the Canadian system) recently, it makes complete sense for the province to look at reforming the health care system. I've been advocating within my friend group since I was 12 (over 20 years ago) for a proper 2-Tier system in this country. Now my friends are all working high up in the Ford government and my long gestating plan is coming to fruition. As a heads up, the next thing we will be tackling is the teachers unions.
A friend of mine from Brampton has a daughter with microcephaly. She has said that for the most part she can''t even get treatment in Ontario and has to take her daughter to New York for treatment.
Of course, on the flip side, she says Canada pays for the treatment, so there''s that.
Going to America for covered treatment is another example of public coverage of private service
@@JJMcCullough the issue with American Healthcare is the cost but the quality of care is pretty good as long as you are covered by insurance or a government program that is.
@@bradley8575 the quality is about on par with most other developed nations. you aren't getting 20x better insulin for 20x the price
@@ColonizerChan true, but you never have more than two people to a small room. Many I've talked to from England act like US hospitals are like hotels and would never dream of a private room for delivering their baby
I think understanding "universal healthcare" is as problematic for Americans as it seems to be Canadians understanding USA Healthcare.
I think it's also about finding where exactly things started going wrong and figuring out a solution. For example my dad didn't have the best of jobs growing up, and we were a paycheck to paycheck family, but our medical bills were at most a third if today's and that's just 20ish years ago. Even just 10 yrs ago my aunt had no problems obtaining medicade, but now it's a fight for her to keep it.
I think this type of scenario where someone is being sent from Canada to the U.S. for treatment not available in Canada has a lot to do with America being 10x the size of Canada. In general, I’d expect and hope America has more health resources than a country it is 10x the size of. Here and there, you may find treatment that is available or at least more advanced in Canada (e.g. The Peter Munk Centre in Toronto is #1 in the world for heart related issues), but undeniably, of course America is going to have more advanced treatment than Canada due to its size.
Thought this was a older video that I hadn’t seen before until I noticed it was apart of the modern, “JJ with a hat” era.
Two other era’s are dyed hair JJ and mustache JJ
I find it funny how NA centered Canada and the US are at times.
Across the pond, the only single payer systems you can find are the Brits and the French. The rest of the continent (specifically the EU) have a wide variety of systems that are a mixture of regulations and private and public insurances
Notable examples are:
Germany has a range of public insurance companies whos costs are tied to your pay rather than age or pre existing conditions, along side private insurances. Doctors are usually private practices that either accept or reject public insurance, which leads to the problem of over use.
In the Netherlands, all insurance is private, though its legally mandatory and companies are required to take in people with preexisting conditions. Medicine is heavily regulated as well. Costs are relatively high due to the above obviously, and medicine shortages are a thing sometimes.
I think that this perception that all counties in Europe have the same system really holds back discussions on healthcare reform in the US. It seems to be stuck in a debate between either the status quo or complete government control that “all other developed counties have.”
Another problem I would say is a lack of consistent funding. Here in Ontario, the PCs have been cutting funding to healthcare for quite a while in order to push for privatization. The problem is that a private healthcare system in Canada would be no different then in the U.S apart from the fact that we ALSO have a brain drain. So we'd get both expensive treatment and slow wait times if privatization continues. There will always be more of an intensive to invest in the longstanding U.S healthcare system so a private healthcare system just won't be well funded. The only option is to correctly fund our healthcare system and keep our physicians inside the country.
The fact that some people think that a sick person who has the money to pay for treatment shouldn't be allowed to get treatment makes me sick
Surprised you didn't mention the recent controversy with the MAiD program. For those unfamiliar, there have been several recent cases of health care workers suggesting and even pressuring patients into assisted dying to save money on their healthcare.
It really doesn’t help that a few years back there was a study that the cbc themselves reported noting that allowing euthanasia as a form of health care could save 130 million dollars.
I don’t think JJ wanted to get into political territory. He talked about how he wanted to get away from partisan politics. But I still think that is a big issue.
Beat me to the punch, I really like jjs content, but not touching in this seems like a cop out
I would definitely want to hear JJ's take on this, because all the discourse I've heard on it is extremely sensational, especially here in the States where there is a lot of money to be made from the insurance lobby to tell lіеs and half truths about public healthcare. JJ is one of the few people I would trust to approach this phenomenon fairly.
Yeah...shameful!
As an American, I can attest that the system is NOT GOOD. I once had to go to the ER after a rather bad car wreck and had to wait 12 hours to be seen by a nurse-practitioner, another 3 before a doctor saw me, and when I asked if I could, like, go to another hospital they told me if I tried to leave after having signed in security would detain me for trying to "bail without paying the bill." I got slapped with a nearly $3000 charge my insurance refused to covered after I was given the once over by the doctor and told to "take a few days off work, rest, and take generic pain medication for any aches I will have." It took me months to get the bill waived since I work in in-home healthcare and do NOT make that much money and they were wanting it then and there or they would garnish a huge portion of my wages or send the bill to collections and tank my credit rating that I've been building for years.
I did a report on the chronic condition in my undergrad! It really lifted the scales off my eyes about the state of Canadian healthcare and made me realize we seriously have like a national ignorance when it comes to healthcare in Canada. I’m really glad to see Ford actually taking on reform and that so far, the reform seems to be improvements that were mentioned in the book. Really didn’t think ANY Canadian politician would have the guts to take on the issue of our broken healthcare system, but I’m glad I was wrong
While I agree the system needs to change. I do think people should still be skeptical with Ford. He isn't the most well known for doing things in the best interest of the people. He has a tendency to say one thing then do another. Now I do hope that his changes lead to a better future. But I won't believe it till I see it.
I have always appreciated your even handed approach to these political issues. It's rare on the level of unicorns on TH-cam. Congrats to you for finding such success with this model. This video was another great, balanced take.
"Heroically Centrist"
As an American, without a serious health condition or a major injury requiring treatment, just paying for my insurance plan is a huge portion of my income. That’s the baseline, not including appointments or procedures or medication when I need a test.
I think your characterization of the American healthcare system really glossed over its horrific outcomes, by not mentioning that people who are insured still end up with egregious bills in their co-pays and deductibles. Canadians do overreact to any mention of privatization, but they overreact to that because of the horrors they constantly hear about in the American system.
Yes, this - wait times vs. losing your humanity, house, etc.
Canadians also pay about 50% of their income in taxes. Americans do not (they pay much lower taxes), so theoretically one could account for these bills by saving or treating it as a necessary cost.
i’m an american citizen who lives in minnesota and i’ve never paid a medical bill in my life. when i was poor they gave me free health insurance.
first of all you have to look at healthcare policies in EACH STATE. canadians biggest mistake is thinking american healthcare is the same across the board. in minnesota we are one of the highest taxed states, so we have safety nets for people in bad situations. second, charity is very american. we don’t like to be forced to pay taxes for others unwillingly (taxation is theft), we have a culture of donating money and other resources to help the needy. christians are very good at this. and BECAUSE OF CAPITALISM we have some of the best medical centers in the world. people from all over the globe come to minnesota to come to the Mayo Clinic, celebs and all.
@@eliasarches2575 And yet tons of Canadians say it would be cheaper to fly back to Canada and talk to their old doctor, than get the same medication or treatment in the US.
Agreed, glossing over the fact that medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US really struck me as odd. I don’t think this is one of those cases where you can just shout “media sensationalism” regarding stories of people having to pay insane amounts out of pocket.
Hi J.J. - I think we need a Part II from you. A mention of how sports medicine is done would be worthwhile. When I hurt my knee I was put on a "7-month" waiting list to get an MRI, but several months later I inquired about my position on the list. I was told, "We estimate about 6 months, maybe 7." WTF? So I went to my very excellent chiropractor at that point, who got me over the problem and I could walk without a cane again. Later I found out that I could have gone through sports medicine to get the MRI, with a cost of about $700.00. Not free, but I would have happily paid it.
I am pretty sure that many Canadians don't realize how similar the American and Canadian Health Care System is. The citizens of each country get health insurance while both citizens pay extra when they cross the border. I had a Canadian friend in college who said that he had to pay higher prices when he got injured. When I told him that I had the same experience in Canada, he was surprised.
My aunt went to Las Vegas. She got sick and spent THREE HOURS in the ER. Her bill was $15,000.US For the very same condition in Canada she would have paid NOTHING. JJ, some of your thoughts are WRONG.
To be fair I have full insurance and I broke my collarbone and had to have surgery and a titanium plate installed. The hospital charged my insurance company 50k and all in I was on the hook for about 7k. My plan says that after 7k in a year I no longer have any out of pocket payments.. The most excruciating part of this, is that one of my clients is an orthopedic surgeon and said for the same treatment he would bill 7k even uninsured. When people have emergencies they’re not typically browsing hospitals for a few days to find the best deal. And because of this Americans can’t vote with their wallet and they get charged whatever the hospital feels like charging that day.
Not to mention that the 7k I ended up paying came from 6 different organizations and multiple different claims. It was a complete headache trying to see how much to even pay and to whom.
It’s amazing how much the problems in other parts of the world are so similar
Tuga?
Conhecedor do panorama tuga e brasileiro aqui. Prefiro os dois sistemas ao canadense.
Aquela citação sobre os políticos, por medo da repercussão eleitoral, não quererem aumentar impostos, nem aumentar a participação do setor privado na saúde, nem explicar para a população as consequências de o sistema de saúde tomar uma fatia crescente do orçamento público se aplica perfeitamente ao Brasil. Ela se aplica à questão da previdência social brasileira também, mas isso é uma outra conversa.
It's almost as if the same policies bring about the same results.
@@felipeitoanuatti sistema público de saúde é sempre um gasto enorme. Que se justifica. E que precisa de ser pago. Nao é gratuito, mesmo que o utilizador não tiver que pagar nada após utilizar os seus serviços. Os nossos impostos pagam o mesmo.
Thank you so much for making this video. I've been waiting patiently for 2 years since requesting it, and you did not disappoint. Keep up the great work!
Bet you were waiting in a hospital waiting room for the vid
Sounds like me waiting for a specialist. I've been on the list for over a year to get my chronic illness diagnosed. Instead, I've paid so much in physiotherapy to manage the pain since physio isn't covered. I do wonder if a diagnosis would cover it as I have to go 1-4 times a month at least.
Just like the people waiting for their broken leg to be fix
In the united states I've had to wait 22 weeks just to SEE the specialist, let alone them ACTUALLY doing something... and we had GREAT private insurance through my mom's work at the time.
He would have had to do a much longer video to compare everything. He also missed a lot of detail around Doug Ford's policies influencing the distrust in Ford's announcement. I don't think it was going to be a full analysis of either healthcare system, and he does lean right which effects how he covers things.
In the US, I had the opposite experience. Went to the hospital, stayed a few days, then saw 4 specialists within a week afterwards. Whenever I have a flare up, I can see my specialist same day, or their assistant can take care of matters to comfort symptoms, until they can fit me in within a week. This is not intended to be smug. I think it depends on where you live and the number of health systems available. Also helps having good PPO coverage that's basically universally accepted.
so much for muh canadian wait time
yeah JJ missed the mark on this one :/
specialists can take forever, but usually if you want to travel you can
That was a very informative, unbiased video. Well done! I was hoping you would mention how MAID works into all of this, but maybe that’s for another video. One last thing, was Doug Ford the wheels off Toronto Mayor from a few years back?
When I was a kid, my dad would take us to Canada on "road trips" so that he could get cheap painkillers and he would use me and my sister as mules to smuggle them over the border. That was before he went to prison and we were put in foster care for much worse, much more disgusting crimes that he committed...... Wow I didn't expect this comment to be as dark as it was. Sorry everyone.
It was dark but thank you for sharing your story anyway.
JJ leads the sheeple while Canada is taken over by NWO communists.
I really appreciate how you presented the American healthcare system. The amount of misinformation I've heard from non-Americans about our system is astounding. When I try to correct them, they don't want to hear it. The truth threatens their sense of superiority.
Canadians seem particularly ill-informed about….well, everything. I had one claim that college was expensive in the US because “the US doesn’t have public universities, unlike Canada.” I had another claim “the US spends the majority of its budget on the military, unlike Canada where we spend it on roads and education.” Both these people were physically in the US at the time, enjoying economic and cultural activities they couldn’t do “in Canada.”
To be fair, JJ underplayed issues with the American system significantly. For the insured, things like coinsurance, copays, and deductibles regularly make like saving procedures cripplingly expensive even with coverage.
And for the uninsured (which make up a much larger portion of the US than JJ's tone implied), they not only have to cope with paying the same amount that would be covered by insurance, they have to pay significant markups that insurance companies are able to negotiate away.
Between these two groups, there is a large portion of the United States that is effectively cutoff from medical care in all but the most dire circumstances, and financially crippled when they aren't. Given the choice of waiting for care or receiving none at all, I know what I prefer. (I'm not suggesting the Canadian model is perfect or that it would not benefit from reform, but suggesting the current US system is anything but an objective failure in comparison seems far fetched in my opinion).
@@notabot5464 Who is employed and uninsured in the US?
@@answerman9933 People working in small businesses across the country, like my mother for example. The current system places the cost for coverage on employers, with smaller companies having higher costs due to their smaller pools. This results in many small businesses forgoing coverage, making them less competitve than their big business peers while also disadvantaging their employees, who have to pay ridiculous premiums for single payer plans.
@@notabot5464 Sounds like a poor business plan.
Thank you for this matter-of-fact analysis. We deal with much of the same rhetoric here in Alberta whenever the government even hints at health care reform that involves the use of ‘private’ clinics.
@ingrid is the wait times in alberta bad? trying to decide if to migrate to canada and as an asthmatic that got lil worst after covid and this health care system, i cant decide
@@swankyshivy It really depends. When I had a family doctor, I didn't have any wait times. Since my family doctor quit, we have to rely on walk-in clinics, and the wait times there can sometimes be long.
It's very interesting that Canadians think what Premier Ford deacribed is terrible, because as an American, i would love that system rather than the healthcare anarchy that we have here
As an american, Our health care is so expensive. Every time patient that gets treatment, The doctor's hold you at gunpoint demanding your house your car and your life savings or else you would die. I just experienced this after Is my pinky broke They demanded my life savings. so now I am homeless now
Not to be rude, but wouldn't it be better to look for work instead of commenting on TH-cam?
It's the central problem of politics everywhere. Many people want more government services, but no one wants to pay more taxes. So politicians promise more spending without more revenue. Which requires increasingly creative ways to pretend what they're doing is something other than borrowing the funds and making everyone's grandkids pay for it.
"no one wants to pay more taxes"..well problem is that the concentration of wealth and loop holes for tax avoidance means the very rich are not paying sufficient tax, and move money out of the jurisdiction
This seems to be a problem more in highly individualistic countries (ie Canada, US, etc). People often confuse individualism w/ being a man alone on an island. The man dies. If 10 people land on an island w/ 1 a doctor he/she will treat everyone, no cost. The 9 others will support the doctor.
thats one stage of the resource curse
Honestly, as a Canadian, I preferred my Healthcare when we paid for our premiums... as soon as they took over, services were reduced or cut out completely. We NEVER EVER want the govt to "provide" such services because they lack! I'd rather pay and get what I need.
A potential solution could involve incorporated direct democracy sampled from the public. Give a panel information from experts and plan options, and then let them decide on what they are willing to sacrifice. France has done something similar in a trial
A simplification of both Canadian and American systems: Americans pay their healthcare costs in money, while Canadians pay their healthcare costs in time.
Nothing is free at the end of the day - it's still other people's labour that is being done somewhere somehow.
this is right, but americans who can't pay have no healthcare ( some die ) and Canadians can run out of time ( some die)
I feel like people say this but I've never had a great experience with wait times in the american system.
right now laws are being passed in Canada to make it a communist country do you think he will talk about that? You are being led.......
Okay I agree with a lot of what you say here, however you do not seem to understand how common getting a surprise $300 bill in the mail for a sleep study is in America so I for the first time in awhile disagree with the crux of your point contrasting Canada with America
right now laws are being passed in Canada to make it a communist country do you think he will talk about that? You are just a sheep being led......
In the US it sucks if you live in the south. If you stop working then they throw you off insurance. Conservatives in the U.S will point out shorter wait times but won't tell you that you will go bankrupt.
Dang, the US expects you to pay for health insurance? Other countries expect you to pay for universal healthcare through taxes. It bwould be nice though if everything in life is free
I see people talking about the freedom of choice in the US. That's great, except you're usually shoehorned into a very limited set of choices based on your insurance company, and your set of insurance choices is drastically limited by whether or not you want to spend an average Canadian's annual salary on health insurance, or if you want to spend very little and just experience financial ruin if anything bad actually happens. Maybe some of the reaction against Ford is overblown, but you have a system you should fix in Canada, and a lot of people in Canada are highly motivated to turn it into an American-style system where there are immense profits that mostly go to insurance companies. So, tread carefully.
I think the biggest mistake Canadians and Americans make is that the healthcare debate in both countries is very binary. You must either support American-style privatized healthcare or Canadian-style single payer and nothing in between. I'm always amazed at how shocked people on both sides of the border are to learn that these two systems, including single payer, are comparatively rare outside the Anglosphere. In Germany, for instance, private health insurance companies exist but are treated as utility companies, thus are strictly regulated and subsidized to ensure universal access and affordability.
What Doug Ford proposed is a somewhat Europeanization of Ontario healthcare. As soon as you say the P-word in Canada, you're a terrible pro-American
True!
Our local hospital here in Maine is full of Canadians. The main issue I am told is that wait time for medical treatment can be extremely long. But this is a great video. Between my wife and kids, we have employer funded insurance, and rarely pay out of pocket for anything. Those without can get medicare/medicaid/state-funded plans. It does help to shop around to make sure you are getting covered treatment
What a fucking joke while communism takes over Canada JJ bla bla... Canada sucks.
Watching Canadians complain about their healthcare while I went medically bankrupt over a broken ankle surgery. These issues are shared by American hospitals especially the ER crowding. Took me 8 hours to be seen for my shattered ankle and the entire time they told me it probably wasn’t broken it’s probably a strain because I wasn’t screaming or crying. The difference being I got a fat bill and a three week wait for surgery which cost over 200k.
No insurance?
I had an incidence of IBS a couple years ago. Went to the doctor, got tests done. Was told they didn't know what to do but they would refer me to a GI specialist. They wouldn't give me a contact name or anyting just that they would be in touch with me in some amount of time. It's been 2-years now and I'm still waiting on the call. Canadian health insurance is great if you need emergency life-saving surgery in a rich city or just need basic care from a clinic or cheap pharmaceuticals. But as soon as you need a specialist need to see a doctor for recurring knee or shoulder issue or in my case something more specialized but not technically urgent or life-threatening you are basically screwed
What a fucking joke while communism takes over Canada JJ bla bla bla... Canada sucks.
The trick to avoid wait times in Canada is the same as in America, just go to the emergency room. You'll see all the specialists you need within days if not hours or immediately, instead of going through your family doctor who will put you on one of those months long wait lists. Just make sure it's not a rural hospital emergency room though.
Wait times are horrible in the US too, on top the hefty price. My sister had to wait for 9 months for a specialist to see her before she was finally diagnosed with epilepsy. If it weren't for the fact that my BiL is a health care worker himself and is given the best insurance that's currently available in the States, her medical bills woulf have backrupted them.
I know! I can’t understand how our wait times are better. It took my mom years to get the surgeries she needed approved. Simply because she had to schedule appointments at minimum six months out, sometimes more. With about two or three specialists in between that all made her wait and be in pain for years!
She was working the whole time from home and couldn’t even sit without being in pain. By the end of it, she was bedridden and couldn’t hardly walk, let alone take herself to the doctor. But you really can’t get an ambulance because that’s not covered and can be anywhere from $500-1000+ depending on where they have to take you to get treatment.
Oh yeah, and the visits and surgeries basically weren’t covered until we hit a $6000+ deductible. And she was in a good job with decent insurance coverage. She paid that deductible every year, because, like I said, it took YEARS to get everything done and deductibles reset at the beginning of the coverage period. Also the medicine was way too pricy, and so is mine. I wouldn’t be able to drive if I didn’t have mine and would probably be on disability right now.
I’m not looking forward to switching to this new insurance. It’s a $7000 deductible and has higher co-pays. It’s just not fair. I’m so glad I get a discount for my $800 medicine I need, because they almost didn’t cover that either and I have to get it approved every year by the only doctor I can go to in reasonable distance that isn’t covered by insurance anyhow.
Ugghhhhhhhhgehgejsjsnbj. I hope I never have a serious problem, because I’m screwed if I ever just have too hard a case of Covid or something.
#MURICA
Thanks for making this video, J.J. As a young new resident of Ontario, I've been hearing about it on the news but haven't really known the details or the nuances of the situation.
Canadian wait times and spending issues & American insurance premiums and out of pocket expenses aren't mutually exclusive. We can both have extremely flawed systems without either being the "correct" system to follow. Hell, I bet everyone in their respective countries could find plenty of problems with their versions of Healthcare, or things to praise about it.
All I know is, as an American who has had little money, less-than-stellar job opportunities, and no insurance as of late.... I dread seeing the doctor. I haven't in many many years, and won't unless I'm literally dying. Wait times suck and are dangerous, but I'd rather wait 20 weeks and eventually get fixed than NEVER get an operation done for fear of cost.
Obviously some have it better than others and even state to state systems can be vastly different; but when medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US something is certainly wrong.
I’m against American healthcare and support universal healthcare, but I agree. Most people are overhyping it but I do recognize their fears. But any type of fear mongering needs to stop.
As an american, our healthcare system sucks and i have multiple neglected health issues because my insurance won’t cover them.
At last! I have been waiting to hear what you have to say on your country’s healthcare system. Thanks JJ!
JJ seems like he is really just wanting to talk about Beanie Babies or Ice Cream flavors instead of healthcare. Thank you so much for doing this deep dive for us. We really value your wisdom 💚
Great video and information as usual. Moral of the Canadian story (as a Canadian) - the politicians and legacy 'media' gaslight the issue and do a horrendously terrible disservice to Canadians that don't otherwise follow politics and/or are ignorant to the issue, by not providing context, by not explaining how the system works, by effectively lying and twisting proposed changes and updates to existing policies. Case in point - anything written by the Liberal biased Toronto Star.
Much like our friend JJ here, who likes to act like everyone thinks the US is this scary evil place with no insurance, and Canadians get free healthcare supported by the money tree.
When i think most people understand that healthcare is payed for by taxes, and Americans generally have some form of healthcare provided through work. But skirts over any valid concerns that may entail. Like the cost of healthcare per capita, or whether your healthcare should be linked to employment. But instead, he just likes to use the bogeyman to characterize anyone with a different opinion.
"Canadians just assume Americans are uninsured and pay 6k everytime they need to see a doctor, that isn't true" my brother in Christ that's how much we pay WITH OUR HEALTH INSURANCE.
A quibble over "tragedy of the commons" -- the term is used for situations in which there is a finite resource with no coordination, so each user maximizes their use to the harm of others. The situation you describe is one in which there is a limited resource, but those sharing a cooperate by queuing. Sure, some do try to game the system, but it's not the classic tragedy of the commons -- a term used, as with the "Lord of the Flies" to dismiss the idea that people tend to cooperate.
American healthcare is a joke. The best healthcare you can get is Medicaid, which pretty much pays for everything to keep you alive and comfortable, and that's available to our poorest residents via their local social services which varies greatly from state to state. Medicaid is so great people feel forced to stay below the poverty level in order to retain it because if they had to pay for their medications and services it would be economically backwards... it wouldn't make sense.
Compare that with the privatize healthcare that has become the norm in the past 20 years. When I worked at Home Depot in the early 00's my plan was $40 a pay period for myself and and it had a deductable (what you need to pay out of pocket for the year) of $500. Now private healthcare is 10X both the premium and the deductible on average.
Another thing that drives me nuts is that American Universities' R&D basically subsidizes the costs of pharmaceutical development yet Americans spend so much more on prescriptions than anyone. We also have allowed the patent system to be gamed to benefit big pharma to the detriment of sick Americans. People die when they ration their meds.
Point to all of this is that there is a real thing to fear when you talk about "Americanizing Healthcare". Wait times for anything suck, sure, but I rather wait while still seeing my doctor than to not have access to either the doctor or the surgery in the first place.
You didn't mention it but there ARE 100% private pay-out-of-your-pocket clinics in Canada. They started to appear 10-15 years ago. I'm actually considering using one since my last family doctor retired. Getting another one is next to impossible without having contacts with someone in the system in a very USSR-like kinda way. I now have to pay the incredible high taxes for public healthcare and pay again to actually get healthcare.
As an American counterpoint to this video, I'd like to submit "A terrible guide to the terrible terminology of U.S. Health Insurance" by Brian David Gilbert. It's comedic but illustrates issues that people have with the American system post-Obamacare, being vast and complex and loaded with "marketplace choice" where clarity, simplicity and universality might better serve people. Many "hospital bill nightmares" stem from people running into unintended pitfalls and mismatches in coverage networks, in addition to the rest of the American system's quirks.
(I'm also not sure why JJ mentions that the Fraser Institute has a potential dubious reputation, "churning out" materials (in his own words) and then citing them largely uncritically and never doubling back. This isn't the first time I've had source material issues, and that's simply what I've caught through general knowledge without further vetting. JJ is a consummate entertainer, but anyone self-describing as "fair and balanced" is still staking out a politicized position on the matter, as anyone who's heard that used as a tagline can attest.)
The Fraser institute is Canada’s leading authority on wait times. As I said, some people think they are biased, but they are still the leading analysts of this issue.
@@JJMcCullough yeah I am sure wait times measurement can be trusted from FI, their solutions and root cause analysis may be more controversial
It is an issue in the US. We pay health insurance AND still pay thousands in hospital bills. I had insurance but went to the ER for a bad UTI in 2015. After insurance, the hospital send me a bill for 6k.
Most health insurance in the US is crap and doesn't cover enough
right now laws are being passed in Canada to make it a communist country do you think he will talk about that? You are being led.......
It’s not that there’s not enough doctors it’s that the government doesn’t want to add more. My partner has tried 7 years to get a residency in Canada from another country (Iran) and he hasn’t been hired. He went to a very good school and worked in Iran for many years.
As an American who does want more National options I had no idea that is what Canadians thought “American style” healthcare is lol
The conversation around healthcare in Canada has always been rife with misnomers. Before the Obamacare Era, it was known as "free healthcare", an obvious misnomer since it is paid for by taxation. After that it was known as "single payer", another misnomer since Canadians use a combination of Medicare, private insurance, and relatively small out of pocket payments to pay for healthcare. The best way to describe it is as a "Medicare for all" system. When Bernie Sanders advocates for "Medicare for all" He is almost certainly talking about a system similar to the Canadian system.
Most Canadians take an "American style" healthcare system as being predatory, and for the rich. The actual navigation of the insurance policies that are offered go over most people's head unless they have been in insurance a long time.
@@stickjohnny However, none of the names are misnomers. "Free healthcare" is not a misnomer, because it free at the point of service, thus free. Everyone realises you can't get away from taxes, but at least they are definitely paying for something useful. Two things are certain in life death and taxes. "Single payer" is also not a misnomer, because single payer is a reference to how the system is run a single, ie. the government, is the only party that offers insurance, and thus is the only payer into the medical system. Now there are nuances in our system that make the label not perfect, but it is not a misnomer. "Medicare for all" only refers to the outcome.
It isn't. He's oversimplifying, and being kind of dishonest.
@@slowjamsliver7006 Rather than have a very silly and pointless semantical discussion I'm happy to just agree to disagree.
As a Canadian who has worked in the American health insurance industry I think you kind of breezed over the most common expenses that Americans face - soaring premiums, and skyrocketing deductibles and coinsurance. Even with good insurance a typical American can still pay enormous amounts out of pocket for typical health issues. I'll take the Canadian system over that any day.
Also, "medical necessity" is not some odd phenomena of Canadian healthcare which you seem to suggest - perhaps this was an oversight on your part. But American health insurance has very strict medically necessary requirements as well.
Before Obamacare my family paid exorbitant monthly rate to only have catastrophic insurance. Which means only after I spent $10,000 of my own money would insurance pick up the tab. We paid for all Dr visits out of pocket etc… I had 3 kids at the time. It was expensive AF. Obamacare made that kind of bullshit illegal for over 30 yr old people and families.
Private doesn’t mean better.
right now laws are being passed in Canada to make it a communist country do you think he will talk about that? You are being led.......
I spent $800 USD (post-insurance deduction) for a growing pimple in my thigh that just needed anti-biotics. The way you described your system sounds like heaven.
Prices in the US are ridiculous. I am lucky because the health insurance I get from my job is entirely covered by my employer and they give me an additional 1000 each year to pay for healthcare, no strings attached.
Despite this, I am still hesitant to go to the doctor due to the outrageous prices. I paid over $400 for services to get rid of toenail fungus. All they did was clip my nails and proscribe a cheap medication.
I've also paid $500 to get punctal plugs installed to alleviate dry eye.
I've had to pay nearly $300 to get a ringing ear checked out. They did some hearing tests and cleaned out my ear and then proscribed some cheap medication.
It's ridiculous.
Was the antibiotic made from unicorn hair or something?
@@supernukey419 oh no the perception after insurance was like $11, separate. The 800 is for the visit to the ER plus doctor fee.
@@mustaphajav9302 What does plus doctor fee mean?
@@supernukey419 I don’t know but it wasn’t earned in my opinion. I told him what was going on, he believed me, took look to look like he was working, and wrote the prescription
I totally get that Canada’s healthcare system isn’t perfect… but it is objectively better for most people than the American system.
For me personally, last month, I was mostly financially independent besides the health insurance I got from my dad’s work. Now, I’m reliant on food banks (charity run, not a government thing) and have had to get money from multiple family members to pay my rent. Why? Because I broke my ankle. I’ve paid over $2,000 in medical bills so far, and I haven’t gotten many of them yet. And that’s AFTER INSURANCE. I was actively trying to save for an emergency, but it happened so early on (I’m literally 22) that I wasn’t able to prepare in time. Not to mention the wages I’ve lost because of it.
I would absolutely take long wait times over losing all of my savings in the past month. I know the grass looks greener or whatever, but this was a relatively minor injury. The American healthcare system only works for the rich. The Canadians that come to the US to get healthcare faster have the money to do so. Having wait times at least means you aren’t letting people die for being poor. Or letting them go into debt to the point where they have to choose between medical care and rent. 100% you can and should criticize the Canadian system, but to pretend like the American system isn’t that bad isn’t helping anyone
The “volountary” operations name is such a misnomer. If your quality of life is shit but you’re not dying, it’s technically “volountary” which is bs beyond all bs
A severe downside to the American healthcare system is that ALL medical expences (urgent or not) goes through privatized health insurence. With most health insurence being through your employer, losing your job could create unmanagable healthcare costs for those with chronic conditions. Additionally, many low income Americans forgo getting health insurence, gambling a higher weekly paycheck against the chance of brutal expences in the future.
Brian David Gilbert created an award winning video of his own, detailing the ungodly complexity of american healthcare insurence and as an American I would kill for something to be publically funded. It doesn't have to be in the Canadian style as there are many contries we could emulate (Japan, France, and others) but as it stands America pays way too much for healthcare and Big Pharma has way too much lobbying power (keeping lifesaving drug prices extremely high).
A testament to the awful state of american healthcare is its insuline prices and the fact that americans are rationing it, killing themselves because of how unaffordable it is.
I think that making something totally "Free" When it's a finite resource is always a bad idea. At work, I had $10 I could use every day on Lunch. Since the cafeteria closed before my shift every day I bought 3 red bulls which costed about $9.30 and then a bag of skittles. My work realized this and changed the way the system worked so that we didn't get a lunch credit, but everything was 50% cheaper than it is at a regular store. Even though a redbull is now about $1.50, I rarely buy them anymore. I think that adding a co-pay, even a small one, would likely stop some people from getting healthcare if they didn't need it.
What a fucking joke while communism takes over Canada JJ bla bla... Canada sucks.
this explains so many confusions i had about this! for example i was touring a school i applied to in canada (im american) and the student giving the tour told me that she used the insurance the school gave her as an opportunity to fix her teeth and i was so confused bc i just assumed dental was included 😅
A lot of Americans I've talked to assume that college is free in Canada as well, and while it is cheaper than the US, you absolutely still have to pay tuition.
Dental is often included on a bunch of student health plans. Pretty good value for your money.
On the other hand, as a kid I was stunned to find out that dental wasn't covered by OHIP. We really need to get on that, and a national pharmacare program.
As a lifetime U.S. resident, let me assure you, those fears by Canadians you claim are unfounded are absolutely correct. I can see that proposal to switch to for-profit hospitals opening up a hemorrhage of doctors, nurses and quality care from the price-regulated public system to the profit-driven hospitals. When the U.S. allowed our Medicare dollars to go to for profit drug companies for prescription purchases, prices surged. Many, including those of us not on Medicare (a program which is generally for retirees) saw our drug prices soar. I turned to a Canadian supplier to stay alive during the 2000s, while I had no health insurance whatsoever despite my working fulltime.
If Canada's health care system is a C+ right now instead of the A you want to be, please do not let it plummet to the F we have here by pulling the floor out from under it.
That said, I grasp that some reforms may be needed to reduce wait times. But unregulated for-profit hospitals are not the answer. Yes, expand the number of hospitals which provide care, but keep price controls in whatever way keeps the basic healthcare system from loosing its best to higher paying providers, and creating that two-tier system.
13:50 yes, as a life long US resident that is my go to explanation for any situation.
American here: Private health insurance sucks ass. It's an unbelievably shitty system that fucks insured people over with thousands of dollars of copays and deductibles. If you're not employed full time, there is no insurance for you. Canada's public system needs some work, but privatization is not the answer.
In all honesty, most of the faults are the result of the government doing something to "try to help."
@Rusty Shackleford Our government can and should be doing more. Insulin prices are not going to go down without government action.
@@Plumlistic Our government? No thank you, they've fucked up enough already. Their meddling is already a big part of the reason why insurance and college tuition are so expensive.
@@ZIEMOWITIUS If the government just got out of healthcare I think that costs would plummet. The US could end up with the most affordable (and best) healthcare in the developed world.
Great video but you did fail to mention the sheer amount of people in the U.S., even the ones with health insurance, who simply choose not to go to the doctors or the hospital out of fear of it being too expensive. Not saying that the wait times in Canada aren't an issue but not wanting to receive care because of the price and the concept of medical debt are so common in the U.S. Also, the U.S. healthcare system is even less financially sustainable than the Canadian one. The U.S. spends the most of its GDP on healthcare expenses compared to other countries that have universal care, all for worse results.
right now laws are being passed in Canada to make it a communist country do you think he will talk about that? You are being led.......
As a Canadian who has had many surgeries, paid for things not fully covered out of pocket (because it was cheaper than using insurance), and recently had to have a planned surgery in America to great expense and effort...
Privatization and financialization of the Canadian system in any way will continue to degrade it. Ontario Conservatives have been picking away at public healthcare for decades and looking for ways to make money off it, like with LTC and private nurses
The issues with staffing come down to suppressed wages and intentional starving of the system by the current premier... with the sole intention to expedite privatization. Ontario has unprecedented funding lows individually and proportionally, compared to other provinces
Putting care into pharmacists' hands instead of just paying doctors/nurses like they've been asking makes no sense, for ex. This is also privatization. Cancelling virtual care funding for public doctors but having health care nurses promote Maple (a private virtual healthcare service) and simultaneously changes laws to allow out of province doctors to staff the service is privatization. Not to mention all the issues with privatization from costs, pushing procedures, and poorer outcomes.
America (like I experienced first hand, very intimately) has wait times, but then you have to deal with insurance and inhumane paperwork. The insurance industry is waiting to pounce on this country.
Doug Ford is not brave or intelligent.
Not to say our health care is all that great compared to other similar-styled countries, I need to learn more about my preconceived notion about the US. I remember when Bernie Sanders was campaigning in 2020 and criticized their system, I did not hear anyone (his opponents) refuting his claims on that topic. He actually won a lot of people over that.
“Canada: Not as Bad as the US.” That said, speaking as an American who’s been on Obamacare, Medicaid, and a private employer’s plan - and who’s worked at an insurance brokerage firm - the American healthcare system is indeed pretty horrendous. Even for people with good insurance plans, it’s not unheard of to rack up a big bill. I had one crazy case where someone got treatment at an in-network hospital, but the specific surgeon who performed the treatment was out-of-network, which resulted in a bill around 50k.
Putting the costs aside, who wants to spend our precious time on Earth navigating needlessly complex private insurance plans? For all that many Americans like to pump their chests over our lean-and-mean capitalism, our healthcare system is incredibly Byzantine.
Also, it should be noted that employer-sponsored plans have increasingly higher deductibles and premiums. I just pray that I don’t have to use my insurance anytime soon.
EDIT: Now, all of *that* said, don’t let your egos run amok, Canadians. Your country is mostly America-lite, minus the nutty gun culture. 😏
As an immigrant who came from India and worked for sometime with College of Nurses of Ontario in a limited capacity, just make immigrant doctors have it easier to start their practices 🙏 This is the quickest change to have at the very least
Agreed.
Someone from India told me that the healthcare in India is a combination of public/private - public for minor stuff, private for more urgent stuff. That was his experience, what about yours?
@@SWProductions100 so I come from a middle middle class background and I never needed to go to public hospitals. Many public hospitals are admittedly not the best in terms of Healthcare but they're about free for the poor. Treatment is always immediate though no matter what. India doesn't have enough doctors per capita last I remember seeing some stat, but I can promise no one has to wait even a month to get treatment. There are some public health insurances for the lower economic classes but even without that I personally know a few who didn't have to pay a penny without it during emergencies. Ambulances are cheap cause sometimes they're just a van but it gets the work done cause there are plenty of hospitals of all sizes and levels in proximity.
I honestly do like the standard of Healthcare here once you do get the right service but my god the wait times are intolerable and getting a family doctor is unnecessarily a herculean task. Still don't have one 🥲
What a fucking joke while communism takes over Canada JJ bla bla... Canada sucks.