Wait Times in Canada for health care

If you're Canadian, you might want to avert your eyes. This isn't a criticism of your health care system. It's a reality check for Henry Waxman.

In Canada, each province has online information about Wait Times. (Defined as the point at which 9 out of 10 patients have completed surgery or have had their exam.)

One province should suffice as an example. Take Ontario.
Click on Wait Times.
Choose Cancer Surgery.
Choose Cancer type. (For sake of an example, choose Gastrointestinal Cancers.)
Choose Map Location.
Click on map in any area.

THE PROVINCIAL TARGET is 84 days, which makes the 37 to 72 day wait appear efficient.
The pediatric surgery Wait Time: June 2009= 167 days.

You can check out the rest of the provinces at Health Canada.

• British Columbia Surgical Wait List Registry
• Alberta Wait List Registry
• Saskatchewan Surgical Care Network
• Manitoba Health Services Wait Time Information
• Ontario's Wait Time Strategy Website
• Ontario's Cardiac Care Network
• Ontario's Cancer Care Wait Times Website
• Quebec's Web site on Surgery and Treatment Waiting Lists
• New Brunswick Surgical Care Network
• Nova Scotia Wait Times
• Wait Times Tables - A Comparison by Province, 2008

THE KICKER. The Fraser Institute published Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada, 18th Edition. They found:

"Among the provinces, Ontario achieved the shortest total wait in 2008, 13.3 weeks, with British Columbia (17.0 weeks), and Manitoba (17.2 weeks), next shortest. Saskatchewan exhibited the longest total wait at 28.8 weeks; the next longest waits were found in Nova Scotia (27.6 weeks) and Newfoundland & Labrador (24.4 weeks)."

And then there's the drug plans. They recommend replacing government drug programs with subsidized access to private insurance. And as for medical bankruptcies in the U.S.? They're a myth.