As Americans argue about whether or not their healthcare system should contain a public option or become a single payer system, the discussion in Canada revolves around whether there should be more private sector involvement in healthcare. To most Canadians, the majority of whom are on the left or center left of the political spectrum any talk of the public sector running any part of the healthcare system is sacrilegious. For these Canadians, their country is defined not by what it is but by what it isn’t – it isn’t the United States. And nothing distinguishes Canada from the US in the way that healthcare is delivered.
Private companies, as the theory goes are out to make a profit and therefore anything that they can do, the government can do cheaper. The government doesn’t have to and usually cannot make a profit. This, of course ignores the fact that private sector organizations are run by managers while the public sector is run by bureaucrats. Replacing a competent well paid manager by 20 bureaucrats, who spend much of their time writing reports to their many higher ups is not the fastest way to accomplish a task and is not necessarily cheaper even when a profit need not be made. And when it comes to life and death situations, speed counts.
The major problem with Canada’s public sector healthcare system is the wait times for treatment
The major problem with Canada’s public sector healthcare system is the wait times for treatment. Unlike Barack Obama there is no drive to kill off Granny in order to save a few bucks. But long waiting times are inherent in a public system where resources are limited and subject to the inevitable slowness that large bureaucratic organizations suffer from. Most Canadians reject private sector involvement even if it meant that funds that would not ordinarily make their way into the healthcare system would be provided because the private sources that would be providing this money would need to make a profit. Although Canada has thousands of good men and women in the military with over 2,000 currently deployed in Afghanistan, the notion of sacrificing your life for your country in Canada means dying on a waiting list. And too many Canadians, although they complain about the length of time for treatment are content to wait and hope that the government can speed up these times.
Last week Canada’s Fraser Institute released a study on pharmaceutical policy. The report, Access Delayed, Access Denied: Waiting for New Medicines in Canada set out the times that it takes between the production of a new drug and when that drug finally becomes available to the public. Although wait times have been declining in recent years they were found by the Fraser Institute to be still too long. Before a new drug can be sold to the public it must be approved by the federal government. The study found that the average time between when a new drug is submitted to Health Canada and when it is approved was 453 days in 2007. This time period was found to be longer than the delay in the United States and much of Europe. At the conclusion of the 453 days, private insurers could immediately reimburse their clients for the cost of such drugs. But in Canada drugs are often provided by publicly funded provincial drug programs and the Fraser Institute study found that on average, the time between approval of the drug by Health Canada and approval by a provincial plan was 314 days in 2007. In that year the average total time between Health Canada receiving the drug and provincial approval amounted to 2.1 years.
The Fraser Institute’s report recommended greater involvement with the private sector in the form of private insurance companies. This would not only give Canadians more choice but would diminish wait times. And, the report states that subsidies could be provided to low income people to purchase private insurance and this would meet the country’s policy objectives of equal access.
So even if Barack Obama and the Democrats aren’t really serious about popping Granny to save money, there’s a good chance that she’ll die on a waiting list if those evil profiteering insurance companies are done away with. While Canada is trying to reduce waiting times for drugs and medical procedures, the United States is hell bent on a course of action that will increase the time that it takes people to access proper healthcare.
