Skip to main content

Comparing costs of health Care

From today's Globe and Mail:



Montanans will spend almost $8-billion (U.S.) for health care this year, while Saskatchewanians will spend $4.5-billion. That is a whopping difference. But spending is just part of the story.
In Montana, more than 280,000 people under the age of 65 had no health insurance last year, according to Families USA. Another 55,000 insured residents still faced “catastrophic” out-of-pocket health expenses – meaning more than $14,000. Private health insurance does not come cheap: The average premium for a family was $13,770 a year, double what it was five years earlier, according to the Kaiser Foundation.


 The state of Montana is the same size (population) with the same ethnic mix and industry as Saskatchewan.  A population of 1 million in both places, the G&M found that the total health care expenditure for Montana was nearly twice that of Saskatchewan, but more importantly, a quarter of the population is not covered (by choice or because the cost of insurance is prohibitive -- also some people with "pre-existing conditions" cannot obtain health care coverage).

As a microcosm of the problems faced by many Americans, Montana is a good example of what is wrong.  Of course, for some people in Montana the cost of health care (or access) is not a problem, but it remains that for a quarter of Montana's population health care is a huge problem (BTW those young people who maintain they don't need "no stinking healthcare" use expensive emergency room treatment when something happens!).  

Montana is now looking at adopting the Saskatchewan model (don't know if its possible) as a way of controlling health care costs (oft forgotten is that the states cover the bulk of health care costs -- hence the states' dislike for "Obamacare" -- they foot the bill of the expanded program).  Americans often thing that the Canadian health care system is monolithic, when in fact Canada has 11 health care system (each province is different), the Federal government used to have a great deal of say on the medical system used in each province, but this has whittled away as the old 50/50 funding model has been replaced with a 85/15 model today --  money speaks here!  Saskatchewan's system is very different to that of Quebec and Ontario, so the departure is not as radical as it may first appear.  It will be interesting to see the rank of those with vested interests (HMOs and big Pharma) -- doctors increasingly work in large practices and may actually prefer the Canadian health care system!


Anyway, an interesting analysis from the Globe and Mail, and a massive problem for the GOP/Republicans!  If an American state decides to implement a "Canadian" health care system it will cause massive problems for the Washington talking machine.


Note:  Last night I learned that there are more MRI machines in Montana than in all of Canada.  It begs the question, does Canada have too few MRI or does Montana have too many?  This morning, I checked with a doctor friend, asked him how long it I would have to wait to get an knee MRI -- he told me: two weeks for elective, and if I tore something he could get me in before the weekend!!! So my guess is that Montana has too many MRI... maybe this explains why there healthcare costs are so much higher?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spray painting Taylor Swift G650 aircraft (updated)

 First, a bit of paint will not harm anyone.  These climate activities are going to learn two things in the next few days:  (1) Trespassing at an airport is a felony almost anywhere in the world.  That means criminal prosecution.   (2) removing paint from an aircraft is expensive.   So these climate activists are about to find out the reach of the British criminal system and it will not be pleasant, the UK has very strict laws about that, I would be surprised if cleaning the aircraft of all the paint will cost less than $100,000.     I am sure that when they planned (premeditation) this little show they had a very valid logic to doing this.  Tonight, they are probably realizing the depth of their troubles.   I understand that in the UK it's a minimum one-year jail sentence.    Also, good luck travelling with a criminal trespass charge against you.  I am relatively certain that the airline industry will ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tariffs on inhabited Island

 Two seldom-visited islands, part of Australia, saw a massive increase in the tariffs they will face when exporting to the United States.   The 32,000 residents did not have much to say...being Penguines.   NO kidding, massive tariffs were imposed on Heard Island and McDonald Islands.  According to the Australian government, the last visitor to Heard was about a decade ago.   Never mind the 47% tariff on Madagascar, where the principal export is Vanilla and the GDP per capita is less than $500 a year. Not only a Stable Genus but evidently an administration that took all of two hours to proof the list of countries.    They also treated St Pierre & Miquelon, two islands part of France in the middle of the St Lawrence Gulf...
Post a Comment
Read more

Britain, France and Egypt

 The voters realize now that the Conservative Praty desire to return to 19th-century dominance has driven its hatred of the EU.  The voters realize now that departure from the EU has accelerated Britain's decline and may soon make it irrelevant.  At best it will have to kiss American arses to maintain its standing.  For this, the conservatives were punished.  The decline of Britain was inevitable, competition from Frankfurt and Germany in Finance was bound to grow.  The core of Europe (aka Germany) is aging quickly Macron seems to be winning his bet, the left alliance that won the legislative elections will not remain united for long, since they disagree on about everything.   The Far right though it was about to assume power is once again relegated to the back of the bus.   It may draw its own conclusions, but not all of these are good for France.  The far-right has won nearly 1/3rd of the electorate, that is not something to be ig...
Post a Comment
Read more