Canada’s two tier healthcare system

     Let me start with a personal story.  Every Canadian has several, unless you’ve never been sick or accompanied someone who is to the hospital.  My father fell and broke his neck many years ago.  Rushed to the local hospital by ambulance (he got that bill), he was eventually diagnosed with a C2 fracture.  Told there were no neurosurgeons available in all of Toronto and surrounding area, Canada’s largest city at 1:00pm on a typical business Tuesday, our family advocate asked what can be done?  We can try and ship him to Buffalo NY they said. After 14 hours of hall waiting, off he went for the two hour drive to Buffalo.  5:00am arrival in America, two neurosurgeons waiting in business suits to diagnose and operate (talk about professional – what are two geniuses doing up at this hour, ready to roll for?).  9:30am operation done, titanium screws in the neck and one of the surgeons says, “If only you got him here earlier, the spinal cord injury might be less debilitating.”  I drove back to Canada thinking, how can this be? By the way, there were several Canadian patients in Buffalo and the Canadian taxpayer paid over $200,000 for this USA stay, border guards on both sides confirmed this is typical.  How can this be?  Toronto is the 4^th largest city in North America and Buffalo 86^th. 

Solution: Competition works miracles

    Competition is magic; it generally leads to the best price, lowest costs, highest quality, greater variety, and massive innovation and employment.  It is the life blood of the world.  It gives us a reason to get out of bed in the morning.  It gives us a reason to keep score.  It makes professional sports the most viewed events.  There is competition in American healthcare and many of those spin off benefits mentioned are present.  There is little to no competition when it comes to hospitals in Canada, in fact I believe it is against the law for me to open one.  Federal to provincial transfer payments would be limited if I could.

Incentive

     Medical professionals have little incentive in Canada.  One reason well-to-do people seek the American healthcare system is because it is the best in the world. Why? For the same reason Elon Musk leaves for the USA to seek his fortune in the land of opportunity.  Anyone can build a medical facility, hire the best, charge whatever the market will accept and pay whatever they want.  In a free market system the most talented are highly rewarded.  In a government run system, there is little incentive for talented individuals (lots of frustration though).  Talented Canadian healthcare professionals drain into the USA where effort and merit are valued and rewarded.  I’m not saying all talent leaves; fortunately there is a nucleus of saintly underpaid talent that remains, ignoring greener pastures. 

     It should be mentioned that most healthcare is not free in Canada, from dentists to optometrists to prescriptions profit motives rule (seemingly everything outside of doctor and hospital visits). Meanwhile, high federal government taxes are transferred to provinces.  And provincial governments additionally charge all taxpayers flat annual fees for healthcare ranging from $200 to $900 annually on their tax returns.  Even parking at any hospital will set you back over $100 per week. 

Free?

     Go to any hospital, any doctor with your health card and it’s free (no health card – still free). Broken arm, free, not feeling well, free, heart attack, it’s all free!  That sounds fantastic!  The best healthcare system in the world!  Americans say you’re so lucky up there. 

Free is a bad price

     Want to get rid of any garbage fast?  Put a sign up reading “FREE”  Individuals behave very strangely whenever they see this price (no price).  The garbage will be instantly picked up by a passing car, no matter what it is.  FREE ignites the greed areas of the brain.  Canadians are lined up in hospital halls, waiting months or even years for operations and to see specialists.  Why?  It’s FREE.  Unlimited demand and limited supply.  Got a sore throat you think?  Go to emergency.  Not feeling well, go to the doctor or walk in clinic.  Solution:  Just charge a universal user fee of $100 for any healthcare interaction and the lines would disappear along with sick notes.  People would think twice about their sore throat for $100. Never in Canada, no user fees! is the pavlovian response, remember, FREE causes strange but predictable behavior, we always want more of it, taking it away is unthinkable.  Please think again. 

Where there’s Government, there’s corruption:  Canada’s two tier healthcare

     Here is a dirty secret of the Canadian system; no one wants to talk about.  The reality is that Canada’s so called free healthcare is a two tier healthcare system.  One for the rich and connected and one for everyone else. I should mention, I’m neither a medical professional, nor rich and connected, but my hair is grey and I’ve been around a while.  It’s not uncommon to hear in privileged circles, “We’ll get you right in” …and Bang, you’re magically at the front of the line!

     The rich and connected (btw, that goes together) get instant free healthcare, everyone else gets to wait six months for specialized free healthcare and hopefully lives to get it.  Of course, Prime Ministers (Chrétien), Premiers (Danny Williams) and the top 1% of the 1% in Canada often bypass the instant free healthcare and fly to the USA to pay and get the best care in the world.  Now those tiers create a critically ill Canadian system.

Conclusion

     Where there’s government there’s corruption.  Thomas Jefferson’s statement seemingly always rings true.  Why?  The problem with anything government controlled seems twofold.  One there is no profit seeking motive and two, there is no competition, when these get together, incentive dies.

     Note to all governments: Simply throwing money at a problem won’t necessarily solve it.  Just because free is the way it’s been doesn’t mean that’s the way it has to be.  Maybe just maybe if you inject the lifeblood of competition, charge something (instead of free), the privilege would reduce and doctors and our great medical professionals will have more incentive and pay to be there at 5:00am.  Thanks Buffalo, thank you America.

Copyright: Jimosophy Inc.