Mending Fractures in a Deteriorating Healthcare System

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link – but what if an entire country’s population depends on that chain – and what if every link in that chain is getting weaker every day? We know the Canadian healthcare system is collapsing. With the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, overwhelming staffing shortages, and minimal available space in long-term and short-term care facilities, the Canada’s healthcare system is – well, has been – actively waving its white flag.

Emergency doctor Alecs Chochinov has seen multiple patients with appendicitis who’ve spent four, six, or even eight hours in the emergency waiting room, curled up on the floor in agony, unsure of when their pain would be tended to. Current wait times at his Winnipeg hospital, like most across Canada, big and small, are miserable. “While the word “crisis” is being tossed around to describe the state of the country’s healthcare systems, it’s not so much an immediate chicken little scenario as much as a slow “swirling around the drain” one,” he says. Every day, there are more signs of distress.

Provinces and territories provide coverage to certain people (e.g., seniors, children, and low-income residents) for health services that are not generally covered under the publicly funded health care system. These supplementary health benefits often include prescription drugs outside hospitals, dental care, vision care, medical equipment, and appliances (prostheses, wheelchairs, etc.), and the services of other health professionals such as physiotherapists. The level of coverage varies across the country, but those who don’t qualify for supplementary benefits under government plans are then forced to pay for these services out-of-pocket.

So how does this all connect? Without supplemental coverage, individuals are not able to access the care they need right now, either because they can’t afford to deal with it, or because they simply don’t have time to wait 8 hours for a recurring migraine. These individuals are then forced to live with chronic pain and conditions that greatly affect their day to day, and after too long, a small problem becomes a giant one. These giant problems, like overwhelming pain, life threatening conditions, and sometimes fatal occurrences then require emergent care, ultimately clogging emergency rooms.

People are waiting an hour or more in some cases just to be triaged, assessed by a nurse, and assigned a score depending on the severity of their presenting concerns. Symptoms like chest pain should, in an ideal world, be seen within 15 minutes. “We will frequently have, in a busy emerg, 10 to 15 patients presenting with chest pain in our waiting room for hours,” said Dr. Paul Parks, an emergency doctor at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital and president of the Alberta Medical Association’s emergency medicine section.

Which of those chest pains are heartburn, and which one’s a heart attack? Where are the “unrecognized time bombs,” as Saint John emergency doctor Paul Atkinson and his co-authors recently described them: The headaches that are really a subarachnoid hemorrhage, a life-threatening stroke caused by bleeding on the surface of the brain; the leg pain that’s necrotizing fasciitis. Their delays in care “too frequently cause disastrous outcomes.”

Not only are benefits my profession, but they’re also a serious passion of mine. Benefits save lives, plain and simple. A significant amount of healthcare needs must be paid for privately. This includes even “routine” needs like income replacement in case of disability, dental and vision care, prescription drugs, out-of-country coverage and more. By providing employees with greater, more immediate access to and financial assistance with these healthcare services, we allow these individuals and their dependants to deal with their concerns before they become urgent.

We’ve frequently concluded that comprehensive employee health benefits paired with a competitive salary are beneficial for recruitment and retention. But beyond that, when employees are worried about aspects of their personal life, it often has an impact on their focus and productivity at work. Not only that, but poor health is one of the primary reasons employees are absent from work. When employees are better able to afford comprehensive healthcare with the help of their employee health benefits, you will have a healthier and more focused workforce with less absenteeism. And with the advancements in the medical community as a result of the pandemic, access to virtual healthcare is more widely available than ever.

Need more convincing? Easily the most important argument here: employee health benefits simply protect your most valuable asset: your people. They protect your workforce, allowing you and your employees to focus on growing and progressing without the distraction of wondering what will happen if something goes wrong; without worrying about their child’s future; without agonizing over how their going to pay for their spouse’s medication.

How do employee benefits help the deteriorating healthcare system? They circumvent problems. They alleviate strain on healthcare workers. They protect your employees. And by integrating them into your small business, you can rest a little easier knowing that not only are your employees secure, but perhaps our healthcare system’s future could be too.