STUPID CANADIANS

Canada spends more on health care than most European and Asian nations but has some of the longest wait times and worst access to physicians in the world, concludes a report released Thursday. The paper, released by the right-leaning Fraser Institute, compares 27 countries that all guarantee access to health care, regardless of ability to pay. The report says Sweden, Japan, France and Australia all outperform Canada in the following areas: keeping women with breast cancer alive; preventing death from disease; waiting times for health services and the number of years people can expect to live without a disability.

"Canadians continue to not get value for their money," says Nadeem Esmail, co-author of the report. "We are spending a huge amount of money and getting terrible wait times, inferior access to technology and mediocre health outcomes." Canada ranks in the bottom half of nations when it comes to patient access to mammograms, CT scanners and MRI machines -- technologies routinely used to detect cancer.

The report also said Canada has fewer physicians than other industrialized nations: It ranks 24th out of 27 nations with 2.3 doctors per 1,000 people. In 1970, by comparison, the year public insurance was first fully applied to services from physicians, Canada had the second-highest number of physicians, per capita. Iceland boasts almost twice as many physicians per capita while nations such as Italy, Germany, France and Finland all have significantly more than Canada.

The report found that of all 27 countries, only Canada outlaws a parallel private system while others with universal health care, such as Sweden, Japan and Australia, allow some mix of user fees, private insurance and private hospitals to compete for patient demand. "They allow patients the freedom to see care on their own terms if the public system is unwilling or unable to meet their needs," says Esmail, a senior health policy analyst at the Vancouver-based organization.

Canada is one of only four countries with universal care that spends more than 10 per cent of its gross domestic product on health. Only Iceland and Switzerland spend more than Canada. But Albert Schumacher, president of the Canadian Medical Association, says Canada has some good reasons for spending more than most European countries -- such as the cost of serving remote areas and the complex health needs of aboriginals, immigrants and refugees. "None of these countries has jet fuel as a major health care expenditure," says Schumacher. "If we moved the rest of the country into southern Ontario, we would have a very effective health-care system." And he suggests better health outcomes in some of the European countries could be due to increased social spending in other areas, such as lengthy maternity leave, subsidized childcare, shorter work weeks and longer vacations.

Source

***************************

For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation. Both Australia and Sweden have large private sector health systems with government reimbursement for privately-provided services so can a purely private system with some level of government reimbursement or insurance for the poor be so hard to do?

Comments? Email me here. If there are no recent posts here, the mirror site may be more up to date. My Home Page is here or here.

***************************