https://jeffjacoby.com/27413/the-12th-day-of-the-12th-month
Waiting for health care in Canada
Jeff Jacoby
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Thanks to tax preferences dating back two generations, patients have come to expect most medical treatment and procedures — even routine prescriptions — to be covered by health insurance. Consequently, insurers wield far more economic clout than patients do. Providers — doctors, hospitals, urgent care facilities — are forced to accommodate the demands of insurance companies, since it is they who pay the tab. When patients think someone else is paying most of their health care costs, they feel little pressure to learn what those costs actually are — and providers feel little pressure to compete on price or value. Add to all that the plethora of coverage mandates imposed by state and federal governments, and it is no wonder that health care pressures have grown intolerable. Many medical practices won’t take new patients. Result: people can’t get the care they want, or can’t get it from the providers they prefer, or can’t get it without having to hunker down for a long wait.
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Wonder how many people die while waiting or because of the wait?
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Reinke Faces Life 