Canada Sees Boom in Private Health Care
Business
By Molly Line - FOXNews.com Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Facing long waits
and substandard care, a growing number of Canadians are willing to pay for
health treatment, leading to a booming private business in Canada -- a
country often touted as a successful example of a universal health
system.
Private for-profit
clinics are a booming business in Canada -- a country often touted as a
successful example of a universal health system. Facing long waits
and substandard care, private clinics are proving that Canadians are willing
to pay for treatment. "Any wait time
was an enormous frustration for me and also pain. I just couldn't live my
life the way I wanted to," says Canadian patient Christine Crossman, who
was told she could wait up to a year for an MRI after injuring her hip during
an exercise class. Warned she would have to wait for the scan, and then wait
even longer for surgery, Crossman opted for a private clinic. As the Obama
administration prepares to launch its legislative effort to create a national
health care system, many experts on both sides of the debate site Canada as a
successful model. But the Canadian
system is not without its problems. Critics lament the shortage of doctors as
patients flood the system, resulting in long waits for some treatment. "No question,
it was worth the money," said Crossman, who paid several hundred dollars
and waited just a few days. Health care delivery
in Canada falls largely under provincial jurisdiction, complicating matters. Private for-profit
clinics are permitted in some provinces and not allowed in others. Under the
Canada Health Act, privately run facilities cannot charge citizens for
services covered by government insurance. But a 2005 Supreme
Court ruling in Quebec opened the door for patients facing unreasonable wait
times to pay-out-of-pocket for private treatment. "I think there
is a fundamental shift in different parts of the country that's beginning to
happen. I think people are beginning to realize that they should have a
choice," says Luc Boulay, a partner at St. Joseph MRI, a private clinic
in Quebec that charges around $700 for most scans. Yet advocates
looking to preserve fairness claim that private clinics undermine the very
foundation of the country's healthcare system. "Private
clinics don't produce one new doctor, nurse, or specialist. All they do it
take the existing ones out of the public system, make wait times longer for
everybody else while people who can pay more and more and more money jump the
queue for health care services," said Natalie Mehra, member of the
Ontario Health Coalition. Canada spends $3,600
per capita on health care -- almost half of what is spent in the U.S. And
while some in Washington look to its northern neighbor for ideas, the
Canadian system is still changing. "One can
understand that this is evolving and a mix of private and public seems to be
favorable in some context. On the other hand, we need to be really careful
that we're not treating health care the way we treat a value meal at
McDonalds," Dr. Michael Orsini from the University of Ottawa told FOX
News. Provincial
governments now face the difficult job of finding a balance in meeting the
country's health care needs -- reducing wait times and maintaining fair
access without redefining the universal ideals at the core of Canada's health
care system. Return to: Articles Home
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