Hardship because they cannot get timely treatment?

April 10th, 2018

I am a Canadian citizen and have lived in Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong, for over 10 years in each place.

Of all these countries / city, it is only in Canada that I frequently hear people complain of long queues for medical tests, specialists and hospital beds. I also know personally people who could not wait to get medical treatment; not because they had recovered but because they had exited the queue due to death.

I have rarely heard of complaints in Hong Kong or Singapore about medical queues. Why does Canada, a developed country, have a system which has, for years, caused so many sick people and their families so much hardship because they cannot get timely treatment?

Canada's universal health care system is supposed to give the rich and the poor an equal chance to be cared for, but it has not been working. Yet the government has been trying to achieve so-called equality by trying to prevent sick people from getting help from private practices / clinics by shutting them down. Is this how equality can be achieved, by letting some people suffer and die earlier?

I am not a medical doctor and so I have no financial interest in supporting the private practices. However, I am a human being with a family and I great interest in trying to get medical help when needed.