For many Canadians our 39 year-old universal health-care system is the symbol of our national identity.  But in June, 2005 the Supreme Court struck down a Quebec law than banned private health insurance andheld that the public system inflicted cruel and unusual punishment on many of its patients.  The Fraser Institute has found it takes an average 17.9 weeks between the time a patient makes an appointment to see a general practitioner and when he can then see a specialist.  He will then be treated by a system that ranks 13th out of 22 advanced countries in access to MRI technology; 17th out of 21 in access to CT scanners and seventh out of 22 in access to radiation machines.  The safety valve in the system is that U.S. and now Indian, Thai and other eastern hospitals are providing treatment for Canadian patients.

When adjusted for the age of its population, Canada vies with Iceland and Switzerland as the highest spender of health-care among the 28 most developed nations with universal systems.  The Manhattan Institute calculates that a Canadian earning $35,000 a year pays a stunning $7,350 in health-care taxes.  As the Supreme Court indictment read "access to a waiting list is not access to health care and patients are suffering and dying as a result of delays".  Last week the court stayed the impact of its ruling in Quebec for a year to allow the feds and provinces to react.  We are the only country in the world other than Cuba and North Korea to ban private insurance.  The prohibition is viewed as bizarre in other nations with universal health care.  Sweden has long allowed private insurance for elective services and Australia's private hospitals provide a third of the nation's capacity.  In Germany and the Netherlands, anyone above a certain income level is allowed to leave the public system.  Here, one can buy an MRI for their dog but not for their kids.

Polls show that 83% of doctors view the court's decision "favourably" but only 52% of Canadians, who have been conditioned for decades to think that their health-care is free and evenly applied, share that view.  This has lead to an abundance of caution among our politicians.

A milestone in private health care could come this October, when the Copeman Healthcare Center plans to open a Vancouver facility that offers an array of elective services, no waiting times, and even house calls for an annual fee of $2300.

If Canada wants to stop sending people to an early grave it will have to modify a health-care ideology that the Supreme Court concludes is "disconnected from reality".  But aren't most government plans i.e., the rifle registry, high taxes, central command and control governance, the nanny state, artificial bilingualism, the senate, the CRTC, the CBC, national day-care, contrived anti-Americanism, etc., much of the same?

Mickey Moulder

I concur however Private Health Care shoul be able to charge a fee for their services.

Our Canadian health-care kills and harms far more people than a dual public / private health-care system would. The Canadian system also costs far too much money and is very poorly managed. The people are suffering while the politicians take cover behind stupid rhetoric and blind ideology.
Crystal

I agree with this point of view 100 per cent.
We get much too less for paying much too much via taxes and poor services under the present system.

Americans can enrol into private major medical health insurance for a mere $69. per month. This covers hospital stays and surgery. Granted it's not as complete as OHIP however one must compare the costs. As you pointed out our OHIP coverage costs upwards of $7000 annually. Difference being that the US system treats patients in a timely manner. We here in Canada are lucky to access the system at all.