Editor: The Times
Mr. Fletcher speaks of false narrative, and he should know, because his polemic fully employs that tactic.
Throw in Cuba, North Korea and “tin-pot dictatorships” to shore up the argument and one might encourage people to denounce the Canada Health Act as a Commie plot.
But then he hedges and says, “I’m not sure if it’s strictly true”.
That, in some form should have been the lead sentence for his editorial. Maybe it should have been the bold title.
He seems unaware that Tommy Douglas is recognized as the “Father of Medicare”, although it was Woodrow Lloyd who introduced Universal Health Care in Saskatchewan in 1962.
So Mr. Fletcher’s accusation that we’ve copied a U.S. programme’s name is incorrect.
What else might be erroneous in this piece?
The truth is that we have a series of taxpayer funded insurance schemes for hospitalization and most services provided by doctors.
It’s not a government funded monopoly.
This is supplemented by private insurance or by direct payments for services not covered by provincial health plans.
The Canada Health Act requires provincial plans to fund all medically necessary physician care and hospitalization, but a significant amount of spending (about 30 per cent) is private.
Canadian private insurance and out of pocket spending for healthcare equals or surpasses 15 other OECD countries, including Germany, France, Sweden and the U.K..
In six provinces private insurance is disallowed for services covered by provincial plans.
In the other four, the provision is seldom used.
Each province allows patients to buy private, medically necessary care from a physician who is opted out of the public plan.
This is the crux of the matter.
Brian Day wants to be able to bill in both spheres.
This is not a patient care issue, it’s one aimed at inflating income. Furthermore, there is ample evidence that physicians paid both privately and publicly promote the diversion of human and financial resources to the private sector, stressing the public sector even more.
Australia restricts private insurance so that it doesn’t cover physician services provided outside of a hospital, nor does it allow for coverage of the gap between the cost of hospital care and the amount that their medicare plan pays.
That’s just one example of how Mr. Fletcher’s view is incorrect.
Yes, you can ask about the cost of surgery, anaesthesia, medications, and daily stay in hospital. Those figures are not kept secret.
If an imaging procedure is a medical emergency, it will be done.
If Mr. Fletcher’s perception of his need is that it constitutes an emergency even though medical expertise says otherwise, he can get one privately.
What he doesn’t seem to understand is that treatments like massage and chiropractic are subject to the same evidentiary tests as other disciplines.
Because there is no evidence to support their use except for transient relief, they are not funded by provincial plans.
He correctly points out that one can buy insurance to cover them though.
In the context of his editorial, I find it difficult to decide if he thinks that’s a good or a bad thing.
Regarding the somewhat tangential topic of plasma donations in B.C., people should be aware that Canadian Blood Services in Vancouver will accept those donations.
The point is well taken that whether the plasma source is our province or somewhere south of the border is immaterial if it’s being taken from paid donors. Justice Kever was the head of the commission that recommended against paid donations.
That was a direct result of the tainted blood scandal leading to many deaths from Hepatitis C and HIV.
Caution and prudence suggest that Mr. Dix is responding to a public health safety concern that should include oversight of collection and distribution from well-screened, voluntary, non-paid donors.
Mr. Fletcher is correct in saying that we need many more donors, which is why I feel certain he’s rolled up his sleeve on numerous occasions (unless he demands payment).
I was pleased to donate whole blood in both B.C. and Québec, totalling almost 100 units. It’s easy, it helps, and I got orange juice and cookies as a reward.
His concluding paragraphs are a bit muddled, but I think he’s saying that if taxes on the rich are raised to help fund health care, the rich will move to the U.S..
There they will be able to buy private insurance (i.e. pay more) and live amongst a population that has the largest cost per patient in the world, with some of the poorest outcomes.
In conclusion, I’d say that we have a problem in our system that won’t be helped by attempting some nonsensical business plan.
Government is not a business, health care is not a business and the myth that they should be run as a businesses is perpetuated by those who seek to wring the most profit from them.
Sincerely,
Bob MacKenzie
Clearwater, BC