i have a question...

[non]

As far as saskatchewan's health care....what do u guys think privitization would do??Good???Bad???

Also, i was wondering if anyone could help me with this....in many of the arguements from the advocates of shifting health care to a private sector, i keep hearing that it will reduce waiting lists for certain procedures. Does anyone know how this will occur??Im confused...we have a shortage of doctors in Canada. Privitizing health care will not increae these numbers will it???There will still be the same amount of surgeries needed, and the same amount of doctors around....its just that they would be spread out b/w the public and private sectors??Am i completely wrong here??
Or, by privitizing health care do the advocates feel that mroe doctors will be brought in from overseas, the states etc.??
thanks for your help

[princejr13]

I guess much depends on your opinion, currently there is much debate on whether or nor privatization is a possible or even a required avenue and each politician seems to presents a valid case. Personally, I am against privatization simply because saskatchewan is not a rich province ... much of sask's population consists of blue-collar individuals who don't have a lot of money ... but that's just my opinion. Its possible that a two-tier system could also work ... how exactly ... havn't a clue? I was also thinking about that same question ... how do waiting lists go down as a result of privatization even though the number of doctors remains the same ... I'm stumped ...

[kosmo14]

I think that privatization would lead to some of the problems present in the United States. It would allow the richer people and those that work for rich companies more access and choice in their health care, while at the same time excluding the people who don't have the financial means. Even partial privatization as I believe Alberta is proposing or in the process of implementing will still give the people with the finacial means more options. Some say that by offering private services we would be able to shorten waiting lists by having these private clinics perform surguries and other procedures. I think recently the province of Saskatchewan has agreed to set up a provincewide surgical waitlist in which the most needed surguries are performed first. By allowing private clinics to perform the surguries we may just take some of the pressure off the bottom of the list (especially for those who have the finacial means), and in that regard hinder the situation for those who need it more, since some of the Doctors in the public system would have to make the transition to the private clinics. Take for example my father in law and my Grandma. Father-in-law needs a hernia surgury, but it doesn't bother him too much, it just restricts his level of physical exertion but he can carry with his day to day activities. My grandmother on the other hand needs hip replacement surgury. She can barely walk and is in extreme pain. She is confined to her bed most of the time and needs a care provider to help her with her day to day activities. She has been told it may be up to 3 months before she gets her surgury. My father-in-law's wait is about a year. We see that in that regard the wait is more fairly distributed, although harsh none the less. If we had the private clinics to perform surgury, my father-in-law who is pretty well off may elect to pay and get his surgury there. This takes him off the "list", but at the same time, my grandmother who doesn't have the financial means still has to wait to have it done in the public system where they now have less surgeons to do the proceedure, and now she has a 6 month wait. This was just a hypothetical example of what could happen with privatization, at least in my perspective.

[non]

true....but how will that shorten the waiting list. Those ppl who can pay for private health care will...the rest will stay in public health care, right?Well some of the doctors will also move to private health care, others will remain in public. Overall, hwoever, the patient number stays the same, as well as the doctor number. If a 'richer' person cue-jumps, it will still leave the same amount of ppl on the waiting list wont it?It will shorten the waiting list for the said person, but the rest of the people will still have just as long as a wait, basically everyone moves down one spot? Basically, to shrink the waiting list for certain procedures, we need a surpluss of doctors. Right? Im kind of confused with this whole privitizationt thing, oh well....

[non]

Do the advocates of privitization feel that they will be able to bring in more doctors from oversead? That would be logical, since more money could be spent on salaries, with a decrease amount focusing on procedures. The federal/provincial (who pays doctors?) would be able to pay more money to the doctors, since the private health insurance companies would take over some of the costs for health care; an increase in salary would be a strong incentive for ppl from other countries to come to Canada to practice.

Is this right?