Perceptions about how much we pay for health care in Canada
vary wildly. Some call it a “free” system. Some analysts (including
yours truly) try to figure out how much we actually pay for it through
taxes (for the record, the last estimate was about $12,935 for the average family of four). However, our health care system has an additional cost: the time spent waiting.
vary wildly. Some call it a “free” system. Some analysts (including
yours truly) try to figure out how much we actually pay for it through
taxes (for the record, the last estimate was about $12,935 for the average family of four). However, our health care system has an additional cost: the time spent waiting.
Last
year, an estimated 1,082,541 Canadians waited for medically necessary
treatment. That’s a staggering number considering these patients faced
an average wait of 11 weeks. And that’s after they’ve already seen a
specialist.
While some of these patients endured their wait
without too much inconvenience, many others were likely not as lucky.
They waited in considerable pain and discomfort, unable to use their
time productively. In the worst cases, patients may have actually experienced a deterioration in their health and faced poorer medical outcomes when they finally received treatment.