The Right Coast

August 16, 2004
 
Canadian health care
By Tom Smith

Canadians appear to be dissatisfied with their health care system. The answer? More government spending, of course. Americans (as opposed to North Americans) already pay for a lot of Canadians' drug expenses, but that's not enough apparently. Actually, I suspect these numbers do not reveal how deep dissatisfaction with Canada's health care system is. Typically, polls give each respondent a vote, regardless of how much contact they have had with health care. Healthy people tend to like their doctors and assume they will get good care when they need it, far too optimistically in the case of our chilly neighbour to the north. A far better question to ask would be, how do sick people feel about the health care system? It would also be good if you could adjust for all the sick people who would express dissatisfaction if they had not died waiting to get surgery.