Sounds like an interesting movie, but Mr. Moore is in my opionion notorious of skewing and omiting pertinent details to "strengthen" his arguments. Was there any comment on sustainability of these systems? The canadian health care system is NOT sustainable from a fiscal perspective, and it will only get worse with increased demands from aging baby boomers and the rise of obesity.
And not to be an ass, but if your dad worked most of this entire life in the states and paid taxes there without any to the canadian governement, and now wants to retire in Canada to use our already limited health care.....he's a large part of the problem.
Agreed about the exorbant student loans we acrue in medical school (average debt of a graduating medical student is close to 100,000 now, and rising) and subsequent lack of aid/incentive we get from the government. Interest starts (at about prime + 2) when we graduate and payments start six months later. On a residents salary of ~50 K / year working 60 - 80 hours a week for a minimum of 2 years, it really doesnt instill much love or loyalty for the government. A minimum of 10 years of post secondary education for that? I can understand why some of my colleagues would pursue more lucrative venues or locations. Debt relief for agreement to terms of work in a province would be a good idea in theory, but it's not as easy as that. Where we end up after graduating all depends on where we match for residency which is a very competitive process and very much out of our hands. Some provinces (mainly NB) have stepped up and guaranteed a residency training spot in agreement to work 5+ years after finishing, but this does nothing to address the medical school component.
Being a GP is one of the worst doctors to be from a fiscal sense. They are definitely the least compensated for their time, especially considering they have the highest overhead costs of all doctors (~45-55% of their income). The way the current fee for service is set up, it encourages GP's to hammer patients through at a pace of 5 minutes per patient and limiting each visit to one complaint. If they don't, after taxes and overhead many GP's are making as little as 60-80K per year. That's really not very much for so much schooling, and seeing GP's in the states make triple that for half the work...
Some of the annual billing caps mentioned are also present but much more applicable to the higher paying specialist side. I do see colleagues working to that limit and then taking vacation time. And why shouldnt they?
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