Comments on the extremism of socialist medicine in
Canada. This style of medicine amounts to rationing by delay or unavailability,
in place of rationing by cash.
Worth a scan.
“These problems are not unique to Canada - they characterize
all government-run health care systems.
“Consider the recent British controversy over a cancer patient
who tried to get an appointment with a specialist, only to have it canceled
- 48 times. More than 1 million Britons must wait for some type of care,
with 200,000 in line for longer than six months. In France, the supply
of doctors is so limited that during an August 2003 heat wave - when
many doctors were on vacation and hospitals were stretched beyond capacity
- 15,000 elderly citizens died. Across Europe, state-of-the-art drugs
aren't available. And so on.
“Single-payer systems - confronting dirty hospitals, long waiting
lists and substandard treatment - are starting to crack, however. Canadian
newspapers are filled with stories of people frustrated by long delays
for care. Many Canadians, determined to get the care they need, have
begun looking not to lotteries - but to markets.
“Dr. Jacques Chaoulli is at the center of this changing health
care scene. In the 1990s, he organized a private Quebec practice - patients
called him, he mad e house calls and then he directly billed his patients.
The local health board cried foul and began fining him. The legal status
of private practice in Canada remained murky, but billing patients,
rather than the government, was certainly illegal, and so was private
insurance.”
