Canada’s Health Care Failures Outlined
Canadian Health Policy Failures: What’s Wrong? Who Gets Hurt? Why Nothing Changes
by Brett J. Skinner, Ph.D.
Fraser Institute, 282 pages, ISBN 978-0-88975-242-9
$19.95 or free download at http://www.fraserinstitute.org/commerce.web/product_files/CanadianHealthPolicyFailures.pdf
A new book by Brett J. Skinner, Ph.D., director of bio-pharma, health, and insurance policy at the Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank, documents important problems in Canada’s government-run health care system. It’s particularly useful information as the United States considers a government-centric health care overhaul, Skinner writes.
The book identifies six key areas where Canadian health policy is failing: unsustainable costs, shortages of medical professionals, shortages of medical technology, long waits for treatment, inefficient drug spending, and lack of access to new medicines.
“The Canadian health care system is a textbook case of government failure in medical insurance and medical services,” Skinner writes.
Sick Constituency
Skinner’s research shows lengthy wait times are the norm for standard treatments throughout the system, as provincial governments ration care in an attempt to control costs. He also notes many systemic problems go unresolved because only the sick know about them.
“The public is largely unaware of problems simply because most people don’t use the health care system very much. People who are seriously ill—those most directly harmed by wait times and a lack of access to medical care—make up a small percentage of the population,” Skinner writes.
“Politically speaking, ill people don’t represent a lot of votes. How can they have a decisive influence on policymakers about declining access and coverage under Medicare? Politicians can afford to ignore them,” Skinner adds.
‘Gray Market’ Emerging
According to John R. Graham, director of health care studies at the Pacific Research Institute in California and a former resident of Canada who endorsed Skinner’s book, “The Canadian status quo leads to long waits for diagnosis by specialists and treatment. It also leads to underinvestment in medical innovation.”
In 2005 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favor of a Montreal patient who wanted to purchase private insurance to obtain a hip replacement, and a doctor wanting to set up a private clinic, striking down portions of the Quebec Hospital Insurance Act. Graham notes similar cases are working through the legal system in other provinces.
“Canada now has a gray market where physicians and entrepreneurs have started offering private medical services, but they are not fully protected from discrimination by the government,” Graham said.
Tabassum Rahmani (trahmani74@yahoo.com) writes from Dublin, California.
