Yes, its a global issue since last 40 years - im reposting what i posted to the GP:
> Wait times for medical care seem surreal.
Its due to the governments defunding public healthcare in order to 'strangle it then save it'. You defund it, make people say 'it doesnt work', then say that "We need to privatize it."
Its de facto privatization method used since Reagan/Thatcher. Same method is being used in any country that ends up with a 'privatizing' government.
Using monopsonic position to keep costs as low as possible is a primary advantage of single payer healthcare. And raising healthcare payroll taxes is politically unpopular like raising any other taxes. No need to spread conspiracy theories about preparation for privatizations.
I feel that the bigger problem is that the demographic bomb has finally hit more developed countries beyond Canada. Unlike either the US or Canada, Europe just isn’t very used to immigration yet. The EU is nearly as good at assimilation compare to the US because they’re still relatively new to the game, which exacerbates the problems associated with immigration. Of course countries in Asia, like Japan and South Korea, are even worse than the EU when it comes to assimilation
Any proof for this? Because in the Netherlands wait times are increasing because, get this, more (old) people are using health care.
This increases pressure on the people who work in health care so they burn out, leaving fewer people to pick up the work, who then burn out, lather, rinse, repeat.
Salaries in health care are not fantastic, true, but the people burning out do so because they have to work too hard, not because the government is defunding them.
Another problem is that there simply is more treatment options available because of scientific progress. Afflictions that used to kill people can now be treated or at least managed, but this takes up a lot of time and money. Great for you if you end up living longer and in better health, not so great for the system as a whole.
Its amazing how people are still unaware of this after so many documentaries, reports, advocacy on the matter.
Just google. "Neoliberal privatization tactics", "Economic hitmen" (that was a pretty popular take), neoliberalism etc.
> more (old) people are using health care.
Irrelevant. The number of older people in any country is not enough to bankrupt healthcare systems Healthcare is a function of the percentage of national GDP spent on it. If there are more people, you have more GDP, you can spend more. If you have less people, you cant spend more but you also have less people.
Blaming the problems on irrelevant 'reasons' is one of the ways in which privatization is hidden from sight - just check how many cuts have been made to the healthcare spending in your own country in the past 40 years, and how much. There you will have your answer.
I appreciate that you’re angry and I agree that for the most part there’s entirely too much privatization going on (railways? really?). As far as healthcare is concerned, however, in the Netherlands (it might very well be different elsewhere), it is mostly not being privatized and the government is spending ever increasing amounts of money on it which take up an ever increasing cut of the budget and the reason for this is more people are growing older and sicker and are therefore requiring more complex care.
We’re currently at €7000 per person per year spent on health care, with average salaries being €36.000 annually. This is unsustainable.
> Wait times for medical care seem surreal.
Its due to the governments defunding public healthcare in order to 'strangle it then save it'. You defund it, make people say 'it doesnt work', then say that "We need to privatize it."
Its de facto privatization method used since Reagan/Thatcher. Same method is being used in any country that ends up with a 'privatizing' government.