The health of businesses involved in the medical industry
in Canada has never been better. Contrary to popular perception,
privately provided medicine and surgery has been available
in Canada for decades. Procedures, such as plastic surgery,
that are not covered under the Canada Health Act have historically
been provided by private practitioners. In recent years,
however, doctors and entrepreneurs in the medical field have
started to offer services that are covered under the national
health program. Economically speaking, they are filling a
demand.
The bottom-line results have been astounding. According
to a report published by the Canadian Institute of Health
Information (CIHI), the health-care costs for each Canadian
citizen and legal resident was approximately $4,400 in 2005.
That was a total of $142 billion, but the government was
only responsible for paying $98.8 billion of the sum.
The rest - $43.2 billion - went to private enterprises that
provide medical services to a nation recognized globally
for its universal system. The most significant strides for
private health care have taken place in Quebec, where clinics
that offer magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and joint
surgery have opened. The cost for using private clinics is
steep. For example, hip replacement surgery at the Duval
Orthopedic Clinic in Montreal can run a patient $12,000.
If the surgery were to be done in a nearby hospital, the
tab would be picked up by the provinicial government. The
well-documented problem that creates the for-profit demand
is wait times in the public system.
Surgerical procedures not considered emergencies can leave
patients suffering with tremendous pain for many months.
Fed up with the wait times, more and more Canadians are looking
for alternatives, and more doctors are setting up shops to
relieve them of their chronic aches.
“We and our patients remain frustrated by waiting
periods that exceed all ethical standards," said Dr.
Brian Day in August during his inaugural speech as the president
of the Canadian Medical Association. “To allow acute
problems to become chronic makes no sense and exacerbates
the already existing crisis in chronic care.”
Day’s appointment was seen as a milestone moment for
the advocates of a two-tiered system in Canada. Since 1995,
the surgeon from Vancouver, British Columbia has run a private
clinic to treat orthopedic injuries, as well as cosmetic,
dental and eye procedures not covered by the Canada Health
Act. He maintains his reasons for wanting to ramp up private
care revolves around his concern for patients, not profits.
“My focus is to ensure ALL Canadians receive timely
access to necessary care, regardless of ability to pay. That
can only happen when we put the patient first. Not politicians,
not hospital administrators, not health professionals, not
trade unions. The patients,” he said. “The ability
to pay should never be a factor for any patient needing health
care in Canada.”
Day’s clinic, the Cambie Surgery Center, is able to
operate because it caters to a small number of citizens --
including police officers, military members, and some unionized
construction workers -- who are not bound to the public system.
Those patients who are legally allowed to pay to use clinics
like Day’s receive treatment without the long wait.
Day wants such service available to everyone and he’s
not alone. For-profit clinics are opening across the country
and the CIHI report on national health care said residents
of Ontario, the nation’s most populous province, spent
$19 billion on private-sector health care in 2005.
Critics, though, maintain more private services means increased
costs and more delineation between rich and poor. As Day
suggests, when it comes to the intimate decisions in life,
Canadians are as wary of privatization as Americans are of
government intervention. What’s true is both systems
have massive flaws that frustrate their citizens. In a poll
by ABC News and the Washington Post, 62 percent of Americans
said they favored a switch to universal health care as long
as there weren’t any waiting lists. As it is, more
than 40 million Americans go uninsured and have to pay exorbitant
costs when they get sick. In Canada, everyone receives basic
insurance, but there is no guarantee in the government system
that individuals will receive the care they need when they
need it.
Of the two nations, Canada ranks slightly higher in providing
health care, according to the World Health Organization.
It comes in 30th while the U.S. is 37th. That’s no
solace to the Canadians who have to live in pain while waiting
to reach the front of the line for surgery in the public
system. Two years ago, Mary Brown Gregory told the Montreal
Gazette she paid $11,000 to the Duval Clinic to get her knee
replaced because she couldn’t take living with the
pain any longer.
"It was worth every penny, and I was desperate and
I had the money,” said Gregory, who was 81 at the time. “But
I think it's very sad that others have to wait."
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