Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate for 2005 March 8

Permalink [Comments] (1) Tue Mar 08 2005 12:42:

My goal today is to be as productive as possible. (don't worry, I'm not clocked in). I've done lots of filing, put my store order away, and other various projects.

Kathy is back from Canada today. She has learned lots about Canadian employment law and social medicine. Canadians have about twice the amount of taxes witheld, and about 50% of the tax base goes towards healthcare. The social insurance, however, only includes stuff that is done during an office visit. Anything else is not covered at all and you need supplemental insurance anyway to cover anything else (generously provided by your employer, if you're lucky). Sounds like a waste of taxes to me, since they still need to have other insurance to actually cover stuff.

Although I think if you offer insurance to some of your employees, you must also offer it to others in a different country even if social healthcare is provided.

How much of our tax base goes to healthcare anyway? I know there are free clinics, but maybe those are all privately sponsored.

Comments:

Posted by Joe Walch at Wed Mar 09 2005 14:03

Ah, Healthcare, love to talk on that subject.I don't know how much of our tax base goes to healthcare, but I know that it is a lot. People say that social security is a problem, medicaid/care is in much worse a position. There are some free clinics. I volunteer at the Utah County Clinic for example, but that clinic is sponsored by The Church (LDS), and private donors. I am suprised that they have so many resources there. The free pharmacy alone is stocked with thousands of dollars worth of good drugs--all donated. Also, there are doctors, pharmacist, and nurses that work there for free. I would like to see OTHER professions take the time to do something like that. (of course Accountants do that, but elsewhere, the volunteer spirit is pretty sparse). As far as socialized medicine goes, it is a pretty good rule of thumb that government beauracracy is never as effective as competitive market competition. A friend of ours who is an Oncologist, Dr. Prestige, said of the slow development of healthcare technology despite technological prowess in japan is due to its socialized medicine structure.

"Despite being a very civilized country, the predominant medical insurer in Japan is the government and therefore it is subject to all the pitfalls and limited resources of a national healthcare system. Private healthcare is available, but is not affordable for the vast majority of people."

That is just the reality of the system, I suppose. In the case of people with terminal illnesses, I think I would much rather be in the United States where the highest technology and best treatment options are available to most people, whereas, if I were worried about chronic illness and having children, stuff that only takes a few office visits and that is covered under healthcare, then I would like to live in Canada.

Leave a comment