10Canada Has Free Healthcare And An Excellent System
Thomas Clement Douglas is the recognized founder of socialized medicine and is regarded as a national hero by many Canadians to this day.
Perhaps if Mr. Douglas was alive today to see the state of Canada’s national healthcare system, he might be calling for reform if not a complete overhaul.
That overhaul is not just a plausible whim of fancy, but is actually completely necessary in order for Canada’s healthcare system to survive into the future.
Today, most provinces and territories fund the system with just under half of their total budget revenues.
By 2037, however, that percentage is expected to rise sharply.
If it doesn’t, the healthcare system that Canadians know and enjoy simply will not survive.
Even today, the state of healthcare in Canada is shaky at best with a severe shortage of doctors and other health professionals.
Add to that the current long waiting times for both medical procedures andapproved drugs within the country, and one can see that the problems which are beginning to emerge within the system will hemorrhage over time into a cancer on the system itself.
Lastly, healthcare is never “free.” All Canadians pay for it one way or another through taxes and transfer payments between provinces and territories. Even after paying the appropriate taxes just to keep the system running, many medical procedures and most healthcare equipment are not covered under the system and, after age 65, most Canadians can expect to pay just over $5,000 a year to maintain their health out of their own pocket, after taxes.
The problem with the socialist Canadian healthcare system is best summed up in a quote by the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who once famously said, “The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.” Perhaps no other country on Earth faces this harsh truth more directly than Canada does.
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