Canada’s private clinics surge as public system falters

Canada's publicly-financed health insurance system is gradually breaking down, say observers, and public hospitals are sending to private hospitals growing numbers of patients they are too busy to treat, says the New York Times.

Private clinics are opening around the country by an estimated one a week, and private insurance companies soon will find a gold mine.

Private doctors across the country continue treating patients, assuming provincial governments will not try to stop them only to face a test case in the Supreme Court.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other politicians remain reluctant to openly propose sweeping changes, even though government costs are exploding and some cancer patients are waiting months for diagnostic tests and treatment. They claim private doctors drain the public system of doctors and nurses. Yet, most Canadians agree that current wait times are not acceptable, says the Times. Furthermore:

Canada remains the only industrialised country that outlaws privately financed purchases of core medical services.

The prohibition on obtaining private health insurance is not constitutional where the public system fails to deliver reasonable services.

Source: Clifford Krauss, Canada's Private Clinics Surge as Public System Falters, New York Times, February 28, 2006.

For text (subscription required): http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/28/international/americas/28canada.html

For more on Health: http://www.ncpa.org/iss/hea/

FMF Policy Bulletin/ 14 March 2006

Publish date: 22 March 2006
Views: 405

Canada, Public-health, Privatisation, Healthcare

The views expressed in the article are the author’s and are not necessarily shared by the members of the Foundation. This article may be republished without prior consent but with acknowledgement to the author.

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