I am an American living in British Columbia. I enjoy living in Canada but am surprised by some misconceptions we Americans have about the Canadian Medical system. I am not posting this thread to knock Canada, but I do feel that many Americans need to educate themselves on the facts of Universal Health Care as practiced here in Canada before using Canada as an example and argument for UHC in America. I lived in the USA for nearly 50 years, and many times in my life I have had people tell me how amazing the Canadian UHC is. I been led to believe that it is free to all citizens and ahead of the American system in every way. Sadly this is far from the truth. I recently started reading in the Canadian press about medical tourism... and not Americans coming here, but Canadians going to the USA and other Countries for health care. The main reason seems to be very long wait times to see specialists and to get surgeries. People can suffer for many months or years here before getting the help here in Canada that their taxes have paid for. The video I have posted IMO accurately represents some of the problems with the Canadian UHC system and in the words of Canadians who have had to seek medical treatment elsewhere. Now in all fairness I do have to state that there are pluses and minuses in both the American and Canadian system. Also I think it is only fair to point out that the average life expectancy age here in Canada is significantly higher than that of America. [video=youtube;pWKiFf8qAWE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWKiFf8qAWE[/video]
