Over the previous 12 months, medical leaders have known as on provincial and federal governments to take fast motion to avoid wasting our well being system. Emergency division wait occasions are breaking data, surgical procedures are delayed or cancelled, and 15 per cent of Canadians haven’t got a household doctor. Our system and nation can not proceed this trajectory. Our publicly funded well being system desperately requires innovation and fortification to ship care to all.
It’s mentioned in politics that no good disaster ought to go to waste, and there’s a lot of speak that some provinces will use this a possibility to transition to a extra investor-owned health-care supply system.
But, Telus Well being’s Life Plus program, owned by a company big, has come beneath overview in BC for probably making a parallel privately funded system and drawing household physicians out of the publicly funded system. The purported objectives of privately funded care are to scale back prices by driving competitors and enhancing entry, nevertheless it creates a slippery slope sliding in the direction of a system that privileges those that can afford to pay.
As Canadian docs who’ve studied well being coverage within the US, we will verify that Canada’s historical past of equitable entry based mostly on want, not capacity to pay, shall be undermined by including private-pay to the equation. It is going to create a mishmash of poorly functioning health-care supply programs.
In a Lancet publication assessing 60 nations with the Healthcare Entry and High quality (HAQ) Index which appears at deaths that could possibly be prevented with well timed and efficient well being care, Canada ranked within the prime 25 per cent and the US ranked close to the underside half.
In response to a Commonwealth Fund publication evaluating 11 OECD nations, the US is ranked final for affordability and it spends extra on well being care than another nation on the earth. Fifty per cent of low-income People report cost-related entry issues in comparison with 21 per cent of low-income Canadians. In Canada, that is largely pushed by the lack to pay for medicines, one thing that will change with the introduction of nationwide pharmacare. Many European nations carry out nicely, however they’ve the power to control prices in lots of ways in which Canada can not.
The US additionally has the best toddler mortality and lowest life expectancy of the 11 nations within the rating. The US solely has 4 per cent of the worldwide inhabitants nevertheless it has had 15 per cent of all deaths globally attributable to COVID-19. In an evaluation of 26 million COVID-19 circumstances within the US, 338,000 deaths attributable to COVID-19 may have been averted if all People had satisfactory medical health insurance.
The US is just not a system to repeat. Actually, our medical colleagues within the US are advocating tirelessly to enhance their system. A privately funded system wouldn’t solely doubtless price Canadians extra, however the well being of our nation would endure even additional.
Like all nations, Canada has its flaws, however entry to well being care based mostly on want, and never capacity to pay, is a key Canadian worth. An awesome variety of Canadians stepped as much as get vaccinated towards COVID-19 to guard themselves and their communities. Over 76 per cent of Canadians have been vaccinated as of December 2021 in comparison with 60 per cent of People. We care about one another. We’re a collectivist society, and private-pay well being care can solely survive in an individualistic one.
It is time we cease discussing privately funded well being care as an answer and look to strengthen our system to work for each individual dwelling in Canada. It’s time to cease trying to the US for options and as a substitute look to how we will maximize our present $265 billion in well being spending to strengthen our publicly funded system and shift extra {dollars}, not much less, into our common well being system.
We have now room to innovate by making a world-class well being human useful resource plan deeply built-in into the wants of communities, funding wanted well being infrastructure, supporting household medication, and having better management and co-ordination between federal and provincial/territorial governments.
Let’s embrace our collective nature as Canadians and pull collectively and demand a greater, stronger common well being system for all. It is essentially the most Canadian factor that we will do.
Dr. Kaylynn Purdy is a neurology resident physician on the College of Alberta and a well being coverage masters pupil at Stanford College.
Dr. Melanie Beckard is chair, Canadian Medical doctors for Medicare and a pediatric emergency medication doctor.
