Our Health Care
My Thoughts
There has been a lot of debate lately on health care, much of it revolving around Ralph Klein's recent proposals to contract out surgeries to a private company and allow for private hospitals. There is not much argument about the fact that currently, our health care system is not providing service fast enough and therefore is in need of more funding; there is much disagreement on where this funding should come from, however.
Many have used ``choice'' to tout a move to parallel private and public systems: let people choose what system to use. Others make wild claims that somehow a privately-funded company will be able to do things much more efficiently than a publically-funded one.
However, the question of how to increase funding for health care boils down to two options: either people can pay wholly or partially for their own services (user fees) or the public funding can be increased enough to provide the level of care desired. A dual private and public system is just the first option: people with more money can get more and perhaps better health care faster; those without the money to buy private health care are left to the currently under-funded public system. The right way fix health care is to restore and increase the public funding which has been repeatedly cut over the years and to look at ways of improving the administration of the increased funding to allow the federal government stronger control of where health money is spent by the provinces.
Moving toward a system funded by user fees means moving toward a system where people are denied health care due to their economic standing. It means telling people, ``you don't have enough money; we can't treat you.'' It mean moving closer and closer to a system like the United States, where almost one fifth of the population has no access to health care, and much of the rest of the country must worry: about whether their HMO covers their illness; about what happens if they change to a different HMO; about whether taking the person they just found on the road to the hospital means they need to pay for that person's treatment; about countless things which citizens of a civil society shouldn't need to worry about.
The reason our society exists is to help everyone in it enjoy a better life than they could by themselves; our society doesn't exist solely to mediate disputes between a collection of individuals competing with one another. Allowing everyone access to the same health care, regardless of their income, is the only fair way to provide this service. Since our current health care funding is inadequate, we should look to ways of increasing funding and services for everyone, not only those who can afford to buy their health care.
Other Thoughts
New Democrats' review of Bill 37, Klein's proposal to allow for private health care.
How private companies in the UK enjoy better profits thanks to a languishing public system.
On his private health care plan, Premier Klein says, "Under the proposal, Alberta Health would pay for all insured services done at [private] clinics and [private] clinics would not be allowed to charge Albertans for services covered by Alberta Health Care.", hoping to alleviate concerns that the public system will suffer.
Comparison of the three NorthAmerican health care systems; Canada spends far less per capita yet has higher life-expectancy (by almost 2 years) and lower infant mortality, generally considered to be a good indicator of the effectiveness of health care.
Phyllis Matousek's thoughts comparing New Zealand and Alberta, published at the Alberta Council for Aging's Web site.
Medical Post on the lackof health funding in Alberta; on the United Kingdom's private health care.
The Canada Institute for Health Information on health expenditure trends from 1975 to 1998 and on the health ofCanadians: in areas where there is not a commitment public funding (i.e. vision and dental services), those with higher incomes are three times more likely to obtain service.
David Orchard onthe relationship between NAFTA and the push to privatize health care.