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Canadians Create Intelligent Medicine
RunAmuk writes "Engineers at the University of Calgary have developed a pill that, once swallowed, will determine how healthy or ill the patient is, and will release just the right amount of medicine accordingly, according to an article on Wired. As the sensors used in these pills grow more advanced are doctors going to be come obsolete except for real physical injuries? Of course, anyone who has been to a doctor in Canada understands that we need medicine that can do the diagnosis for them."
Okay pill, I think I have a pain in my chest, come cure me.
No wait, scratch that. It could be a heart attack.
Maybe I should go to the doctor after all.
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Socialized medicine in Canada works like this:
1. You pay (via your taxes).
2. You are promised health care.
3. You get sick.
4. You wait (25% of all cardiac patients referred to a specialist by their general practitioner die before being seen). 5. You get care on a par with U.S.-style Medicaid.
Furthermore, if you move between provinces or are a returning expatriate (like me) (at least in the case of moving to Ontario), you have to sign a form that you intend to reside there permanently before being eligible for health care. As I hate it here and intend to try again for eventual U.S. citizenship via the H1B/Green Card route (heck, my three year old son is an American), I can not, in all honesty sign that form, and so, do not have health insurance. Nor can I buy it instead of the state insurance, legally. I pay to see a doctor.
Purchasing health insurance outside the system is illegal.
In Canada, you can have a sick patient able to pay top dollar for needed surgery, doctors who have reached the government quota on how many such surgeries thay can perform (to cap thier salaries, paid out of tax dollars) and thus can't perform it. Doctors are paid the same rate (well, indexed for geographic region), and can't differentiate on the basis of skill -- the best leave for the U.S.
Often it is noted that the cost of providing health care is less in Canada than the U.S. This may be true, but the quality of care available is far, far, inferior.
You could've hired me.
Here's something I've always wondered about: "up here" (heh) we call it public healthcare, I think I've only ever heard it called "socialized medicine" in the States. It's like the easiest way for the companies in the States to keep their massize industry is to slap a communist implication on it and let the public beat up anyone who voices their opinion for it.
BTW, this is more of a general observation on US politics than a specific comment on healthcare.... it seems to happen in everything. Oh well, some misconceptions die hard.
That was merely intended to be a cheap shot from a rabidly jingoistic twit who's been taught by CNN to hate all government programs not invented in the good ol' US of A and desperately wants to move down there. Pay it no mind.
Here's a quick lesson to those unfamiliar with Medicare up here: the government doesn't run the entire health care system like in Soviet-style communism, they merely fund universal insurance. That's the incomplete short version, but that's the basics.
Not to be confused with the US gov't Medicare program, a totally different animal.
Canada does have a very good health care system. Basically, Canadians have longer lifespans and lower infant mortality than Americans, while Canada spends far less per capita on health care.
Lots of people will give you anecdotal stories about Canadians being denied health care and long waiting lists and incompetent doctors, but stuff like that happens under HMOs too. Some people call it socialized medicine, though I think it's also called a 'single payer' system, where the government is acting as your insurer.