Well, while medical doctors here dont earn as much as they do in the US (the government insurance does not pay as much), they do make a rather good living. One also needs to factor in the losses US doctors make when they simply do not get paid (because the person in question cant pay it), or because they get sued, which also results in higher legal insurance costs for them. As I said, the US has a lack of MDs because of that. We here dont, we almost have to many. If it was such a bad business noone would want to become an MD. Pharmacies also make really good money here. Their owners belong to the richer people. I do find our system and regulations for pharmacies rather questionable though (only so and so many per area/number of people, regulations on opening times, etc). That is something the pharmazists themselves had introduced and it has been kept up by tradition. I guess it also guarantees that there are enough close by pharmazies and since their opening times are regulated (they alternate on which one is open at night and on the weekends), they make sure that there is always one open in an area (we unfortunately have regulations that limit the opening hours of stores, etc, they are valid for everyone in my country other than turks for some reason, gggg).
Still these regulations are rather strange and I am not a big fan of interventions like this. Anyway, pharamacies and doctors here are not poor here. The hospitals are not poor here either. Radiologists make a good living too.
If the government decides hip replacement is not cost effective for 80 year olds you have no recourse.
As I said, that might happen in other countries, it does not happen here.
Here you do also have the option to get an additional, private insurance for additonal treatments and better hospital rooms. Well, you do if you have not had a heart attack, then you are out of luck of course.
No! Canada does exactly that. As I had stated before, the experience of having my mother die from cancer at age of 82 because they estimated that she did not have many years ahead of her anyway.
That is sad, but as I said before, Canada is not the best example maybe. It got rather poor ratings in comparison. Austria rated much better.
My Grandmother is 90 now and does have lung cancer. She had the option to take chemo therapy. The doctors recommended (!) not to do it though, because she is to weak and would simply die during chemo therapy, which is hard on the system of a young person already.
Anyway she would die with more pain and more problems than she will like this. At this age cancer also spreads slower so she might actually have quite a few more months ahead of her.
I have two doctors in my family that want the best for my grandmother (and not for the governments pocket) and they say the same thing.
They are also not going to send my grandmother home just like that. She gets a home help payed by the government and if things still dont work out for her, she can request to get a permanent bed in a hospital.
My grandfather died at the age of 92 and had all the treatments he needed until the day he died. Again two doctors in my family made sure he did. Not a single problem there.
A friend of mine died at the age of 96. He too had never been denied a treatment for anything.
I guess Canada is just a really crappy example for a public healthcare system and that might be why so many of you are having problems with seeing the benefits that such a system can have.
Caring for the elderly does cost our government the most, yes, but luckily there are many younger people that need much less than they pay for and so the whole system is still kinda stable.
I also want to point out that pharmaceutical companies are doing very well worldwide. I dont think any of them are loosing profits because of the evil countries with public healthcare. My dad knows plenty of people that work at one or the other company. They are not hurting, at least not here.