Comment & Debate
Brian Schwartz. “Universal Health Care Is the Wrong Prescription”. The Heartland Institute. June 1, 2008 – “Physician Burnout
The Canadian Medical Association Journal reports in one year 71 Ontario patients died while waiting for coronary bypass surgery and more than 100 others became “medically unfit for surgery.” The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports, “109 people had a heart attack or suffered heart failure while on the waiting list. Fifty of those patients died.”
Even so, health care workers face a heavy workload under such systems. “Physicians across Canada are in an advanced stage of burnout due to work conditions,” which “causes them to retire early … or simply leave,” a former Canadian Medical Association president told The New York Times. He “attributed much of the problem to technological shortages and the powerlessness doctors feel when patients complain about long waits for treatment.”
“Access to a waiting list is not access to health care,” wrote Canadian Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin when striking down legislation banning private insurance in 2005. Private medical care is surging in Canada because of these problems with the government system.””