July 17, 2007
SNOW ON THE ROOF AND NO FIRE DOWN BELOW:
Canada's senior moment (HEATHER SCOFFIELD and TENILLE BONOGUORE AND DAWN WALTON, July 17, 2007, Globe and Mail)
Canada had better hope age becomes it.Posted by Orrin Judd at July 17, 2007 8:01 PMThe Canadian work force is aging so quickly that there are barely enough young people to replace those about to retire, Statistics Canada reports today in the release of the age and sex portion of the 2006 census.
In 10 years, not only will retirees outnumber newcomers to the work force, they're likely to outnumber children too, Statscan has warned.
“We do see a trend where children are on the decline and seniors are on the increase, and these two lines are going to cross in about 10 years,” said Rosemary Bender, director general of social and demographic statistics for Statistics Canada.
Hmmmm. I wonder what this is going to do to their "free" government-provided healthcare system?
Posted by: ray at July 17, 2007 8:40 PMray,
1. Private care is moving in. In general, the govts tut tut, but are forced to tolerate it nonetheless (occasional opposition notwithstanding) much as the old USSR tolerated the black market: because it's needed. The Cdn Supreme Court has even ruled private coverage OK, at least in Quebec where the case was based, because, as the court said, the alternative is death.
2. Control is by rationing or delaying or witholding of services and that will continue, probably moreso. Talk to Canadians on the street. Most (myself included) now have personal stories of friends and family caught on the waiting lists, sometimes of a Kafkaesque nature.
The actual docs & nurses and such are excellent if you can get to the right one when you need to (family docs, easy; specialists, not so easy). It's the getting to the head of the line that can be tough.
Most Canadians are conflicted. They like the idea of "free" health care but they can see that the system is failing.
The Canadian medical system has waiting lists and rationing. The U.S. system is bankrupting the world's largest corporations and becoming unaffordable for average families.
At least Canadians don't have anything against immigrants of all races to counteract an aging native population.
I, for one, am looking forward to the taco vans ;-)
Posted by: Randall Voth at July 18, 2007 4:28 AMRandall, ever wonder why there aren't more people of all colors emigrating to Canada ... and why so many who do arrive in Canada make a bee-line for the U.S. as soon as they are able -- even sneaking across the border? Maybe it's that they are already familiar with workers' paradises where they come from and don't want anymore of it, but wish to strike out on their own.
Health care isn't bankrupting corporations, it's the governmental bureaucracy and the trial lawyers who are making health care insurance premiums so expensive. A small portion of the dollars spent on our nation's health go to the actual providers and this impacts negatively on the quality of our doctors. When physicians were confident of good incomes, the best and brightest applied to medical school, so we had the best doctors in the world. As their potential incomes continue to plummet, the B&B will turn elsewhere for a good living.
Most of the readers of this blog have many years to go before their dotage and believe that their superior life styles (to their parents' generation) of healthy eating and exercise will make them invulnerable to the ravages of time. I wish they were right, but time will take its toll and they may not be so cavalier about denying themselves care because statistics show treating them would not be cost effective.