Editing Medicare (Canada) (section)

===Canadian Health Practitioner standards===
It is generally accepted that physicians arriving in Canada from other countries must meet Canadian Health Practitioner standards. So there is concern that doctors from other countries are not trained or educated to meet Canadian standards. Consequently, doctors who want to practise in Canada must meet the same educational and medical qualifications as Canadian-trained practitioners.  Others suggest that the [[Canadian Medical Association]], the [[Ontario Medical Association]], and the regulatory bodies (the provincial [[Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada|Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons]]) have created too much red tape to allow qualified doctors to practise in Canada.<ref>{{cite journal |pmid=10763392|pmc=1232340|year=2000|last1=Mahim|first1=A|title=Red tape is strangling foreign-trained physicians|journal=CMAJ |volume=162|issue=7|pages=972}}</ref> Canada's health system is ranked 30th in the world, suggesting the logic of the doctor shortage defies the statistics.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cthealth.server101.com/Old%20Universal%20Health%20Care/united_states_spends_most_on_health,_but_france_no__1_in_treatment.htm |title=Universal Health Care – Canada ranks 30th |publisher=Cthealth.server101.com |date=June 20, 2000 |access-date=June 6, 2011}}</ref> In fact according to a report by Keith Leslie of the Canadian Press in the Chronicle Journal, November 21, 2005, over 10,000 trained doctors are working in the United States, a country ranked 37th in the world. It would suggest money or the perception of better working conditions, or both, are resulting in an exodus of Canadian doctors (and nurses) to the USA.<ref name="ReferenceA">Ont. Medi Scare – Chronicle Journal, Thunder Bay, November 21, 2005 – Physician shortage puts stability of health-care system at risk. OMA</ref>

It is important to recognize that many consider the doctor shortage in Canada to be a very severe problem affecting all sectors of health care. It may relate in part to the details of how doctors are paid; a detail often misunderstood. In Canada, almost all doctors receive a fee per-visit, not per-service. It has been suggested that this type of "fee-for-visit" payment system can encourage complexity, volume visits, repeat visits, referrals, and testing.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/200/300/fraser/health_reform/improving.html |title=Improving health care for Canadians |publisher=Epe.lac-bac.gc.ca |access-date=June 6, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.benefitnews.com/feedback/views34.cfm |title=Health Care Costs Nobody Talks About |date=April 8, 2007 |access-date=June 6, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070408035710/http://www.benefitnews.com/feedback/views34.cfm |archive-date=April 8, 2007}}</ref>

One consequence of the shortage in Canada is that a great many patients are left without family doctors, and trained specialists, making early intervention very difficult. As the article in the Toronto Star specially isolates, it is not so much a problem of a doctor shortage but of a shortage of 'licensed doctors'. [[Michael Urbanski]] states that Canada already has a hidden reserve of foreign-trained MDs eager to begin medical practice. "However, what's crucial to understanding the issue of doctor shortage in Ontario is that while the Liberal government is planning to go "poaching" for other countries' doctors, there are an estimated 4,000 internationally trained doctors right here in Ontario working at low-wage jobs."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://triec.ca/index.asp?pageid=41&int=newsite/news-media/inthenews/MediaClippings/StarAug1904.htm |title=What doctor shortage? – Toronto Star, August 19, 2004 |publisher=Triec.ca |access-date=June 6, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929211116/http://triec.ca/index.asp?pageid=41&int=newsite%2Fnews-media%2Finthenews%2FMediaClippings%2FStarAug1904.htm |archive-date=September 29, 2007 }}</ref>

A CBC report [6](August 21, 2006) on the health care system reports the following:

<blockquote>Dr. Albert Schumacher,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/healthcare/public_vs_private.html |title=Private verses Public – Dr. Albert Schumacher |publisher=Cbc.ca |date=2006-12-01 |access-date=2011-06-06}}</ref> former president of the Canadian Medical Association estimates that 75 percent of health-care services are delivered privately, but funded publicly. "Frontline practitioners whether they're GPs or specialists by and large are not salaried. They're small hardware stores. Same thing with labs and radiology clinics …The situation we are seeing now are more services around not being funded publicly but people having to pay for them, or their insurance companies. We have sort of a passive privatization.</blockquote>

In a report by Keith Leslie of the Canadian Press in the Chronicle Journal, November 21, 2005, commenting on an Ontario Medical Association Report, prepared by the human resources committee states "The year 2005 finds the province in the midst of a deepening physician resources crisis". The report continues to report, "the government should make it easier for doctors from other provinces to work in Ontario and .... ". Here we have signs of inter-provincial competition affecting the doctor shortage in one province over another.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Essentially, privatized healthcare is not a choice of interest for lower income Canadians, it is most likely to be unaffordable and unfair to those who suffer on a social standard.