Quebec ban on private medical care struck down

charrison

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
17,033
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The Supreme Court of Canada struck down Thursday a Quebec prohibition on private health-care insurance, in what members of Canada's medical profession called a "historic" decision with the potential to dramatically change the face of care in this country.

The lengthy and complex ruling was a year in the making and was closely watched by people on both sides of the health-care issue because of its implications for public and private care in Canada.

"This is indeed a historic ruling that could substantially change the very foundations of medicare as we know it," Canadian Medical Association president Dr. Albert Schumacher told reporters in Ottawa, adding that his group would need time to assess the full impact of the court's finding.


linkage

THis is a good move for Canada. Hopefully this will help greatly reduce their waiting lines for medical service.

The bad part is, fewer people will travel to the US to spend their medical dollars.
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,489
6,036
126
Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
Was/is private medical care able to compete(money, skill, etc) with gov't provided care?

CsG

No. Most Private Clinics in Canada are for foreigners, mostly Americans, looking for good cheap Healthcare.
 

CADsortaGUY

Lifer
Oct 19, 2001
25,162
1
76
www.ShawCAD.com
Originally posted by: sandorski
Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
Was/is private medical care able to compete(money, skill, etc) with gov't provided care?

CsG

No. Most Private Clinics in Canada are for foreigners, mostly Americans, looking for good cheap Healthcare.

How do you come to that conclusion?

CsG
 

Stunt

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2002
9,717
2
0
Originally posted by: sandorski
Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
Was/is private medical care able to compete(money, skill, etc) with gov't provided care?

CsG

No. Most Private Clinics in Canada are for foreigners, mostly Americans, looking for good cheap Healthcare.
Wrong. My grandparents use private care in Quebec.
Clinics are widespread in Quebec, they are on the cutting edge of private clinics. I fully support this measure as long as the safety net for the poorest canadians remains.
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,489
6,036
126
Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
Originally posted by: sandorski
Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
Was/is private medical care able to compete(money, skill, etc) with gov't provided care?

CsG

No. Most Private Clinics in Canada are for foreigners, mostly Americans, looking for good cheap Healthcare.

How do you come to that conclusion?

CsG

That's what they were built for. This of course excludes Dental and Optometry Clinics which have always been Private.
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,489
6,036
126
Originally posted by: Stunt
Originally posted by: sandorski
Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
Was/is private medical care able to compete(money, skill, etc) with gov't provided care?

CsG

No. Most Private Clinics in Canada are for foreigners, mostly Americans, looking for good cheap Healthcare.
Wrong. My grandparents use private care in Quebec.
Clinics are widespread in Quebec, they are on the cutting edge of private clinics. I fully support this measure as long as the safety net for the poorest canadians remains.

Hmm, perhaps Quebec operates differently? If that's the case I'm puzzled what this Court Case is all about. Why exactly would this guy have to go to Court to have the Right to use a Private Clinic if it was already available to him?

All I know for sure is that Private Clinics in British Columbia were originally made to cater to Foreign Patients, that is until it was revealed that the Proince was secretly sending certain types of Patients to them on the hush hush. ;)
 

CADsortaGUY

Lifer
Oct 19, 2001
25,162
1
76
www.ShawCAD.com
Originally posted by: sandorski
Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
Originally posted by: sandorski
Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
Was/is private medical care able to compete(money, skill, etc) with gov't provided care?

CsG

No. Most Private Clinics in Canada are for foreigners, mostly Americans, looking for good cheap Healthcare.

How do you come to that conclusion?

CsG

That's what they were built for. This of course excludes Dental and Optometry Clinics which have always been Private.

OK - just curious. Kinda like people going to Mexico to get things done - cheaper due to less regulation and other such things.

CsG
 

Stunt

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2002
9,717
2
0
Wiki says 98% of healthcare is spent by the state. So there is 2% paid for by canadians.

Considering Total healthcare spending in canada is 61.2billion...this is still a 1.2billion dollar industry, paid privately.
 

charrison

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
17,033
1
81
Originally posted by: sandorski
Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
Was/is private medical care able to compete(money, skill, etc) with gov't provided care?

CsG

No. Most Private Clinics in Canada are for foreigners, mostly Americans, looking for good cheap Healthcare.



I was under the impression that private medical clinics were illegal in Canada.
 

Stunt

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2002
9,717
2
0
Originally posted by: charrison
Originally posted by: sandorski
Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
Was/is private medical care able to compete(money, skill, etc) with gov't provided care?

CsG
No. Most Private Clinics in Canada are for foreigners, mostly Americans, looking for good cheap Healthcare.
I was under the impression that private medical clinics were illegal in Canada.
The federal government sets the guidelines for the provincial governments to follow. The provincial governments get the funding from the federal and offering care is a provincial jurisdiction. Quebec, New Brunswick, Alberta, BC all have private clinics, mostly companies who get paid by the government and they invest the initial capital. Private diagnostics facilities are far more common in the 4 provinces mentioned above. This is due to lack of proffessionals to operate the equipment and lack of government capital investment in these large machines (ie. MRIs and the like)

I made a post about Two-Tiered healthcare on my Blog, a couple Canadians responded, I am an EXTREMELY small minority favouring private clinics. What most Canadians don't understand is the fully public system doesn't work and all other nations, including Europe don't spend more than 80% of government funds on healthcare, Canada contributes 98%.

Here's my blog post:
Considering Two-Tiered Heathcare, By:Stunt

This is a topic of great controversy; many federal politicians tend to avoid this topic, as polls indicate healthcare is the most valued institution and service in the country. Federal politicians are just in their avoidance as healthcare is a provincial jurisdiction, not federal. Through this piece, I intend to bring to light the positives and negatives of this concept.

Two tiered healthcare defined by Wiki is: ?a form of national healthcare system that is used in most developed countries. It is a system in which a guaranteed public health care system exists, but where a private system operates in parallel. The private system has the benefit of shorter waiting times and more luxurious treatment, but costs far more than the public one for patients. Thus there are two tiers of health care, one for the public at large and another for those who are wealthy enough to pay for better care.?

First off I want to mention that in Canada, Two Tier Healthcare exists! There are only a few provinces pioneering this field: Quebec, Alberta, BC, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. Of these provinces, only the latter three have been charged as Alberta refuses to pay, and the federal government is not anxious to get on Quebec?s bad side. Quebec is by far the leader of private healthcare with the most private clinics and over 50% of the private (for-profit) imaging clinics in the country.
So why two-tier you might ask, well the reasons are countless. The most obvious are waiting lines, costs, and keeping health professionals in Canada.

Waiting lines: This topic received a lot of press last election as it was a key part of Martin?s election campaign. The Canadian system has some of the longest waiting times for service in the developed world. Reducing waiting lines is as simple as taking people out of line. As the richer leave lines to pay for service in a private clinic, the poor will get faster service and the system will benefit all parties involved.

Costs: Buying medical equipment is expensive. Allowing more people to pay for their own services reduces costs drastically for the government system. The majority will receive better care as the government will not be spending money on free healthcare for millionaires, but on the poor and middle class exclusively.

Health Professionals: Allowing for profit clinics in Canada, the clinics will keep doctors, nurses and other professionals from flowing to the US for higher wages as we will be able to provide these higher wages domestically rather than push these people away with our limited public health budget. One argument against the private system in Canada is that doctors in the private system will be better and the less fortunate will get the crappier doctors. This is the worst argument ever. Assuming the number of people receiving care is constant (same number of people getting hurt, getting disease, suffering illness), a fully public and two-tiered system will roughly require the same number of doctors. This means that the ?crappier? doctors these people mention are already working in the Canadian healthcare system. Making this case is an insult to Canada?s current healthcare system, and an insult to the medical education institutions in this country. With the private clinics able to offer larger compensation through their increased cash flows (from rich paying for service), we can keep doctors in Canada rather than exporting them to the states. Overall the quality of doctors will increase for everyone with two-tiered healthcare.

Healthcare is a very important issue in today?s political landscape. It is a service Canadians are proud of and we all feel everyone should have access to care. Those who are ill and hurt should be treated no matter how much money they make. One thing I do not like is watching our government give a service to millionaires for free when they would prefer not to use the service. Two-tier as shown above makes everyone better off. As long as the rich continue to pay into the public system, quality of care will increase and waiting lines will be reduced.

An obvious example of the public and private systems working well together is the secondary education system where rich can pay for a different service for a price, but allowing the public system to remain mainstream, free and effective.

I am interested to hear some of your opinions on this concept. How private health clinics can help our system, how you think they would hurt our system. Your views on the brain drain, how we can keep doctors in Canada, without breaking the bank.