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Milton hospital at night is always terrible (4+ hours) since only 1 doctor works
Joke is most of the time the nurses can't treat cause they don't have papers even if they know what needs to be done must wait for doctor

Soulition: Private Health Care. Less taxation.

my 2 cents.

I don't agree with total private I think we should have public health care and we should have the option of upgrading to private. Basically if you have money and want faster care, cleaner rooms, larger rooms with private washrooms, less wait for time, maybe even separate private hospitals.

I think if we scrap public health care, a lot of poor people will suffer, and their children will not get the care they need

yup!

I had gone to my family physician the day before because I could not break my one-year old's fever. She advised me that if it got over 39 degrees to go to emerg because she said that a fever that high for a baby is dangerous. The next morning her fever was 40.6 degrees, and therefore her case was considered an emergency, I did not treat it as a walk-in clinic. And driving to Mac from Milton is 30 mins, in our case 30 mins wouldn't have made a difference in regards to her fever. I wanted a pediatrician to see her because her fever was so high...

Ha! The US private system is one of the most expensive health care delivery systems in the world. No thanks! I'm open to exploring some aspects of adding private health care to the public system but to state that private health care means less taxation is simply wrong.

I had a co-worker, who went on a business trip to India. (he regulary travels to the region). He was experiencing heart pain. Walking in to doctor, after consultation, went next door to a "state of the art" CT Scanner. Walked out with the report and CT image - $800.00. All in one afternoon.

In Canada, see doctor, wait 6-8 months for CT Scan. Then wait 2-4 weeks for the report.

I don't even consider the US system as an alternative private model. The insurance companies run the show.

Hmm.

Fair enough Richardv. Diagnositics is actually one area I think is worth exploring for allowing privatization in parallel with public. But, salaries in India are a fraction of what they are here, state of the art medicine is only available to a small fraction of their population - the elite, and private insurance doesn't run the show because most people couldn't afford it. $800.00 to most families in India is still well beyond what most could afford. They haven'y had time in their rapid industrialization to evolve to the point where insurance companies would run the show or develop a public health care system or some hybrid therof. There are models in Australia and Europe that combine private and public that are worth exploring to see what the pitfalls are and if there are things Canada could glean from their experience and incorporate into our system going forward.

Exactly this - if you're going to be waiting for hours somewhere else, and babe is not choking/bleeding to death (you'd call an ambulance anyways), then what's a half hour drive?

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The last thing I would want on this earth is a US style health system. They are one screwed up nation when it comes to that sort of thing. I would not want anybody no matter how poor or rich to lose their house and life savings because they could not afford treatment. We must all chip in for the good of all when it comes to healthcare. Your life is not worth more than mine, as mine is not more worth than yours. In the US, money and the haves vs. the have nots is more important than general health. Without health, you have nothing. We should be proud of our system. When it comes to tax cuts, healthcare should never be on that list, period.
On another note, f**K the Republicans. Creators of the Walmartization of the world.

You can use this link to see wait itmes in Ontario for the ER

http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/public/p ... rs/default

Milton is beating the provinical targets for wait times

Trillium still has better care and more facilities - I'd rather be there, as I was in 2006 for 15 days when I had a rare intestinal condition that never presented until the day it buckled me to my knees.

Well in healthcare Canada definitely has an edge over U.S. because it is universal and works for everyone. I've witnessed both the Canadian and U.S. systems pretty closely as a patient or accompanying a relative.

The U.S. system drives up costs due to its multilayer bureaucracy (yes, bureaucracy) exactly what they accuse the public systems of Canada and Europe of. Having said that, if one has a decent job or is covered through a decent group programs including for university students/staff etc then the U.S. system is far more quicker and more comprehensive. Basically you are able to see a specialist within days and obtain diagnostic tests or treatments pretty quickly.

Some American physicians do claim that the weakness of Canadian system is that something may not apparently look like an emergency could very well turn out to be so thorough testing is important. And for complicated conditions, perhaps not many places anywhere in the world can be better than Mayo clinic, Andersen Cancer or Hopkins/Mas general.

But for about 50 million of 1/6 of the U.S. population, getting sick is not a luxury that they can afford. And though poor and elderly are covered to an extent by Medicaid or medicare, the multi-tier health system becomes readily apparent. So as a whole, Canadian system I think works better for the population as a whole.

People are worried about private health care or user fees as they will not be able to run to the doctor or Emergency Room when they feel the whim.