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klaus
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Apr 19, 2011, 7:03 AM
Post #1 of 1
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For all those interested in how the fully-implemented Obamacare is going to work out, the Fraser Institute, A Canadian think tank, has some interesting answers. Canada has had a system of single-payer healthcare in place for 27 years now and those hairline cracks in the system have now turned into giant rifts threatening to consume the budgets of Canada’s provincial governments.
Already the province of Quebec spends a full 50% of all provincially generated revenues on healthcare with outcomes that are steadily worsening as wait times for treatment increase exponentially. Ditto for Ontario, which will use a total of 50% of its provincially generated revenue paying for its soviet-style healthcare system. Outcomes in that province are equally grim with wait times for referrals to a specialist approaching four months; and Ontario is one of the more efficient provinces. Average wait times in provinces such as Prince Edward Island are nearing 10 months, while in New Brunswick the average wait time is 8 months.
And that’s not even taking into account the demographic time bomb awaiting the Canadian healthcare system, as baby boomers have started crossing the 65-year line, a period when their demand on the healthcare system will increase radically.
The problem, quite simply, is a dogmatic commitment to single-payer public healthcare come hell or high water. As I’ve pointed out previously, Canada is one of only three countries on the planet that has criminalized private healthcare. The other two are Cuba and North Korea.
The Fraser Institute has made some fairly dramatic recommendations for fixing the Canadian healthcare system. The first is suspension of the Canada Health Act (the precursor and blueprint for Obamacare), which would give provincial governments the legal authority to experiment with other methods of delivering healthcare. This would of course include private for profit healthcare, which has long been an unforgivable taboo in Canada. The default progressive position in Canada is to instill fear about “American style” healthcare whenever anyone wants to so much as discuss any alternatives to the single payer government monopoly.
It’s a safe bet that nothing will be done about the Canadian healthcare system until the system collapses and politicians will be forced to deal with the healthcare hot-potato. The problem with publicly funded, government controlled single payer healthcare systems is that competition for the provision of these services is eliminated from the market, as is striving for excellence, as the bills get paid whether the patient lives or dies. It may surprise some people that per capita healthcare expenditures in the United States are currently more than double per capita healthcare expenditures in Canada. In fact, no other country spends more on healthcare on a per capita basis that the U.S.
As healthcare demands grew provincial governments rationed care by reducing the number of doctors, cutting spaces in medical schools and delisting numerous procedures for which the government now refuses to pay. Most recently, the government has delisted hospital-offered diabetes clinics as well as post-surgical physiotherapy. Supporters of the government healthcare monopoly continue to insist that the system doesn’t need fixing, even when statistical evidence suggests otherwise.
For those Americans who believe that Obamacare is a panacea for all that ails U.S. healthcare, take a good look at the Canadian healthcare system because that’s what American patients will soon be facing.
Klaus Rohrich is President and Creative Director of Taylor/Rohrich Associates Inc., a marketing and advertising firm that specializes in niche marketing retirement real estate developments
http://www.maturitymarketing.com.
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