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My Take | Using Canada’s healthcare system is a bit like playing ‘Squid Game’

  • Country’s revered universal health service starting to show signs of a universal lack of service for those citizens who are most in need

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A patient is wheeled out from an ambulance to Scarborough Health Network Centenary Hospital in Toronto, Canada. Photo: Xinhua

Almost a decade ago, when I moved back to Canada, my boss told me I would have to switch from staff to freelance status, and that I would lose the company’s health insurance. But then he caught himself. “Oh wait, it’s Canada, universal healthcare. That’s even better for you and your family.”

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I thought so too at the time. Now, I really miss Hong Kong’s mix of private and public health services.

Let me tell you some healthcare stories about my own kid (Robyn, not her real name), my other kid’s best friend (Mark, not his real name), and the parents of my wife’s best friend (Joan, not her real name), who were originally from Hong Kong. Since these all happen in my immediate social circle, I must assume such anecdotes are not exceptional but very frequent.

Joan’s late father was in his late seventies when he was told he had a terminal illness. The whole family in Vancouver thought it was treatable or at least he could live longer with some proper treatment. But a final decision was made from the start. No treatment option was ever discussed, let alone offered. The only help given was assisted dying. The entire family was devastated. “We rather use the resources to treat younger patients,” the head doctor told the family.

Joan’s mother moved back to Hong Kong last year because she didn’t want to die like her husband.

Canada has the world’s most “liberal” euthanasia programme, with a controversial plan, now delayed, for extending it to severe psychiatric patients who might even be in their teens.

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