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0 pointsmultiplegeorges3y ago0 comments

Much of the current failures are due to conservative provincial governments (looking at you, Ontario...) purposely underfunding before and into the pandemic.

We are now reaping what they have sown.

This is a classic "underfund to prove the system doesn't work thus we must privatize it!" move.

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8 comments · 3 top-level

antasvara3y ago· 3 in thread

How much do you estimate this is being underfunded, and do you believe proper funding for healthcare would push the percentage of GDP closer to the US number?

adgjlsfhk13y ago

You're assuming the US healthcare system isn't equally underfunded. The US has massive doctors shortages (especially in rural areas), and that's not counting all the care the US just doesn't do because people instead just die since they can't afford to go to the hospital.

pessimizer3y ago

> You're assuming the US healthcare system isn't equally underfunded.

You don't have to assume. It costs twice as much as the most expensive health systems on earth, but delivers Afghanistan-level life expectancies. The problem isn't that we're spending too little.

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multiplegeorgesOP3y ago

Ontario is consistently the lowest spender per capita on health in the country.

Ref: https://www.fao-on.org/en/Blog/Publications/interprovincial-...

It's being underfunded by at least 10-15%, which is a lot for a system expected to run as cost effectively as possible. I'm getting that number from the average of $5336 vs ON at $4800. 4800/5336 = ~89%

I don't think we should aspire to US levels of GDP share. That seems quite excessive.

I think the solutions to our issues are structural changes and adequate funding.

randomdata3y ago· 2 in thread

It seems a bit strange to call out the Conservatives specifically. Ontario has been purposefully underfunding healthcare for decades upon decades, with most of the damage done decades ago. Peterson (Liberal) forced practitioners to operate under fixed rates defined by the province, which even lead to a doctors strike. Rae (NDP) eliminated 8,000 acute care beds. Harris (PC) eliminated another 6,000 beds.

Governments of the last 20 years have held the status quo, which leaves them equally culpable.

ohgodplsno3y ago

Conservatives hate that their money is taken away to fund poor people and take money away from their rich friends, and it brings them to defund healthcare, liberals hate that it creates a natural monopoly and their inability to see a functioning society work without private hospitals brings them to defund healthcare

robertlagrant3y ago

There's no point pretending you know what people's motivations are. Conservatives I've read/heard seem to generally want similar outcomes, but disagree drastically on the methods.

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pydry3y ago

This is happening in the UK too.

The NHS is still wildly popular so it's politically impossible to privatize from the outside in but it's becoming less popular as its effectiveness declines due to expanding mismanagement, underfunding and corruption when awarding contracts.

The frog has to be boiled slowly though.

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