A new poll says long wait times lead half of Canadians to avoid seeing a doctor or going to the hospital.

A new poll says long wait times lead half of Canadians to avoid seeing a doctor or going to the hospital.

The poll was conducted by Léger and commissioned by right-leaning think-tanks the Montreal Economic Institute, SecondStreet.org, and the Canadian Constitution Foundation.

The percentage of respondents who say they avoid consulting doctors because of wait times is highest among women, people over 55 and Quebecers.

  • Washedupcynic ( Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca ) English
    14·
    3 days ago

    I live here in the United States. During the brief period of my life when I moved to Dallas, TX, for a job with health insurance, my wait time for an appointment for a new patient physical was 1 year. Canada, private coverage isn’t going to do shit to fix wait times. If you want to fix wait times here’s what you gotta do, increase the # of doctors. To do that you’ll need to:

    • Reduce how much it costs for doctors to get trained.
    • Pay doctors a livable wage that’s takes into account costs of undergrad and med school.

    This will require the rich to pay taxes. When it comes to collecting those taxes, you’re probably going to have to pry it out of their cold dead fingers

    • quanin ( quanin@lemmy.ca ) OP
      9·
      3 days ago

      We could probably also get the money by:

      • Demanding the feds pay what they used to pay (50% of funding for this stuff used to come from the feds unti lthe 90’s)

      • Not wasting the money on stupid shit, like a highway we don’t need, a tunnel we don’t need under an existing highway, or cancelling contracts early and resulting in penalties… just to name a few.

      Not buying a private jet for the Premier probably wouldn’t hurt either.

      • Maeve ( Maeve@kbin.earth ) 
        6·
        3 days ago

        This will require the rich to pay taxes. When it comes to collecting those taxes, you’re probably going to have to pry it out of their cold dead fingers.

        • quanin ( quanin@lemmy.ca ) OP
          5·
          3 days ago

          Yes, I read that. And I pointed to a few things (trust me, there’s a laundry list of them) we could be doing before we reach that point.

          Also, I feel it necessary to point out that there are a lot more billionaires in California alone than all of Canada, nevermind the rest of the US. Taxing your rich would have a whole lot more of an effect than taxing ours.

          • Maeve ( Maeve@kbin.earth ) 
            1·
            2 days ago

            Also, I feel it necessary to point out that there are a lot more billionaires in California alone than all of Canada, nevermind the rest of the US. Taxing your rich would have a whole lot more of an effect than taxing ours.

            I agree. Tell it to nazi.world.