Universal Health Insurance System: The Downfalls

If you were having a heart attack you would want to be treated right away, right? How about if you need a surgery that is not life threatening, but could help you live a better life? Again, you would want to do things right away. But if you are a Canadian, you know just how hard this can be. For an elective surgery in Canada you could be forced to wait more than one year. For instance, the average wait time for a knee replacement surgery is one year. Can you imagine living with pain for a year longer than you have to?

In most cases, the average Canadian waits approximately eight weeks in order to get the professional opinion of a specialist. And after this, they wait another nine weeks before undergoing treatment for the problem. Unfortunately, this is the case even if a health problem must be treated right away to stabilize it.

These statistics are no surprise considering the fact that Canada has a universal health insurance system. Although this type of system sounds like a good idea on the surface, it does not get much better than that. It is nice that every citizen has access to healthcare, but for people who are seriously ill there is a major flaw in the system.

There has been a lot of talk as of late that the United States may move to this system sooner or later. These talks are heating up even more now that another Presidential election is closing in. If you know anything about a universal health system you know that it does not allow people to get healthcare freely. So before you place your vote for the next President, you may want to consider their stance on the healthcare system in the United States.