A Real Healthcare Solution

This post was derived from a post by TZ at Heart of Canada called Americans are from Mars, Canadians are from Venus.

To read the transcript of Jonathon Kay's address to the International Law Section of the American Bar Association, one would think that everyone in Canada feels that there is that much difference between our two nations. He makes one distinction that I feel is correct in observation, Canadians value their healthcare to the highest extreme.

On Healthcare
By example, whenever a Canadian election occurs, there are healthcare issues used on both sides to attempt to win the election. Either the opponent is for two tier healthcare or the speaker is going to add money to the healthcare system to make it better. That is going to fix anything.

What most Canadians do not realize is that we already have two tier healthcare. The first tier which is not keeping up with the needs of Canadians is the publicly funded system we currently have. The second tier exists for Canadians in the United States. Canadians, as noted by several callers on John Gormley's radio show this morning, take matters into their own hands and using the money that they have earned take a trip to either the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins and any number of others, and get the treatment that is needed in a timely manner.

What this does is eliminate a person from our excessive waiting lists and move the money to the United States. There are two ways that could be constructively used to resolve both of these issues. First institute two tier healthcare here. This is a controversial view, but one which if followed into point two should help things. What this will do is two things. It will establish hospitals with business models geared for success. The hospitals will need to be viable businesses in order to succeed. The second thing this will do keep doctors, nurses and associated personnel from emigrating to the United States for more financial gain and job stability. The economic spin offs would be unpredictable, but having high earning positions in Canada for benefit to our tax system would be great.

The second element of this is to mandate a uniform quality of care. By this, we maintain the waiting lists, but allow people to choose their care platform. Those choosing the private platform would move to the for-profit healthcare system. These members are no longer taking up spots in our public healthcare system. The members remaining are taken into available facilities in the same priority as currently exists. Available facilities include the for-profit system. The for-profit tier would offer healthcare services as a means of paying their corporate income taxes. This further augments the public system by increasing the number of beds, doctors and services.

This is only a starting point, but look with honest and constructive eyes and solutions can be found. If the current system is broke, don't discount some other way of fixing it.