Socialized Medicine in Canada's Healthcare System
Socialized Medicine in Canada's Healthcare System
Canada’s healthcare system has been the envy of many western industrialized countries for years. England’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill inspired it in 1948 when he said:
“The discoveries of healing science must be the inheritance of all […] Disease must be attacked whether it occurs in the poorest or the richest man or woman, simply on the ground that it is the enemy […] Our policy is to create a national health service in order to secure that everybody in the country, irrespective of means, age, sex, or occupation, shall have equal opportunities to benefit from the best and most up-to-date medical and allied services available” (Wollstein 23).
Completed in 1970, this socialized health plan provides free public healthcare. Every Canadian receives free doctors’ visits, free hospital care, free surgery, and free medicine while in the hospital. So well known and regarded, Canada’s healthcare system has long been looked to as a shining example of what socialized medicine could be and even won an international award for excellence in 1993.
Even though Canada’s Healthcare plan has had such a positive history it is now plagued with problems. Some of these problems include lack of doctors, lack of beds and supplies, and very long waiting periods for medical attention. Because of these problems arising in Canada’s healthcare there has been quite a debate going on in Canada over socialized medicine. Many people argue that these problems are due to the fallacies of socialized medicine claiming,
“Socialized medicine, like all other forms of socialism, is a world-wide failure. As people throughout the world from the Soviet Union to South America are learning, socialism cannot work. Socialized medicine results in skyrocketing demand for nominally “free” health care, doctors being over-burdened, medical services steadily deteriorating, and endless waiting periods for health services”(Wollstein 24).
Others, who are for socialized medicine in Canada feel the problem is not with the system but with the people themselves. They argue that people are exploiting the system and, “not taking enough responsibility for themselves”(Pierson 26). In any case both sides agree that the main cause of these problems is lack of money, but instead of arguing how they intend to secure more money for healthcare, they argue whether socialized medicine is good or not. This question of good and bad is...