Noteworthy: Health care in Canada is great, or terrible, depending on which ‘tier’ you’re on

By Bruce Penton on January 29, 2025.

Health care in Canada seems to always be embroiled in controversy. Family doctors are sometimes hard to come by. The system is broken. No, it’s not. Taxes are too high because health care is free in Canada. The Canadian system is great when compared to the expensive situation in the U.S. Wait times are brutal for some procedures. Health-care staff are wonderful. Health-care staff are overworked and underpaid.

Add your observation to the above list.

We always hear about the perils or benefits of a two-tier health-care system, but a recent story in the Globe & Mail suggested Canada actually has a four-tier health-care system: Tier 1 – Those who have a family doctor and solid finances, easily able to access health care outside the traditional system; Tier 2 – Those with solid finances but unable to find a family doctor; Tier 3 – Those with a family doctor but with limited financial resources for outside care, if needed; Tier 4 – Those without a family doctor and with limited finances.

The story suggests universal funding of health care in Canada is becoming more difficult to manage, and those costs are “encroaching on other obligations – infrastructure, education, housing and the environment – all of which are also important determinants of health.”

The Canadian health-care system needs more money. But there are only a few politicians alive who would say the entire population of Canada should enjoy a more comfortable lifestyle and that it could be achieved by higher taxes. Cutting taxes is the primary battle cry of politicians seeking office, but unfortunately for the vast majority, they’re usually among the Tier 1 folks in our health-care world.

– Still with health, will the COVID-19 report put together by an Alberta government panel appointed by Danielle Smith become policy? Not if the Alberta Medical Association has anything to say about it.

Dr. Shelley Duggan, head of the Alberta Medical Association, was reported as saying the report “sows distrust by going against proven preventative health methods while promoting fringe methods.”

She says the report is “anti-science.”

Among the conclusions contained in the report, as reported in the Globe & Mail, was a call for the government to halt COVID-19 vaccines without full disclosure of risks, and to end their use for healthy children and teens.

– Maybe the Blue Jays will be worth watching after all this year. After missing out on free agent Juan Soto and Japanese pitching sensation Roki Sasaki, the Jays made a big splash last week by signing former Baltimore Oriole Anthony Santander to a five-year $92.5 million deal. Santander, who belted 44 homers last year, will be a great boon to the Jays’ offence, currently led by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette.

Now, it will be up to Jays’ management to sign Guerrero Jr., and Bichette to contract extensions. Both currently carry contracts which expire at the end of 2025, so the Jays can either sign them both to long-term deals, trade them some time this summer for players that could be signed long-term, or prospects, or simply let them walk as free agents at the end of the season.

Adding a big bat such as Santander will go a long way to having the two current Jays sign extensions.

– Short snappers: A report published by Aging Research Review says drinking coffee every day could add two years to your life. Unless, of course, you exit the coffee shop drive-thru, spill your piping hot coffee on your lap, reach for it in an erratic fashion and slam your vehicle into a light standard. … One of the funniest people on social media is Norman Chad, a former sports columnist with the Washington Post. Said Chad last week: “The Trump Organization has hired an ethics advisor. He will be quarantined for four years.” … Did you know pinball machines were banned in several cities in the U.S. from 1942 until 1979? Authorities linked the machines to crime and gambling. … What will be the penalty from the federal government if U.S. news- and weathercasters continue to call it the Gulf of Mexico? … Donald Trump’s justification for threatening to impose wide-ranging tariffs on Canadian goods exported to the U.S. is because Canada allows “vast numbers of people to come in and fentanyl to come in” to the States. Also, he probably think Canadians say ‘eh?’ too much. … U.S. Democrats had better be careful about winning the presidential election in 2028. The Jan. 6 goons are all out of jail and, well, you know how they act when it comes time for Congress to confirm results.