Earlier this week, The Globe editorialized in support of Québec's decision to fund fertility treatments. This was in stark contrast to the virtually unanimous pounding among Québec editorialists ( here and here) who saw it as a political decision and an example of misplaced health care priorities.
That our health-care system is not in great shape was also pointed out this week by the estimable Globe specialist in this area, André Picard.
Further evidence of the dire state of our system — at the other end of life — comes in a report this week issued by the Economist Intelligence Unit, which has us tied with the Americans in the Quality of Death (the title of the report).
Here's the gist of their assessment:
"the US stands no higher than number 9 in the overall ranking principally because of the financial burden of end-of-life care. This reflects the high overall cost of healthcare in the US, where expenditure has risen sharply in recent years, now accounting for one dollar in every six spent. The US ranks better in terms of infrastructure — at positions 7 and 8 for Quality and Availability of End-of-Life Care respectively (and top of the list when it comes to healthcare spending as a percentage of gross domestic product).
However, this is offset when considering the financial burden to patients, driven up by the low availability of public funding and social security spending on healthcare. These factors collectively push the US to a lowly 31st in the Cost category…
Similarly, despite placing in the top five countries for Quality of End-of-Life Care, Canada also suffers in the overall ranking as a result of the cost of end of-life care. While the Canadian government has shown a heightened interest in recent years in improving access to palliative care, and hospitalisation is 100% funded by the state, homecare may still be a considerable burden. A recent study in the journal Palliative Medicine found that Canadian families frequently shoulder 25% of the total cost of palliative care."