How NY Times Have Changed

This doesn't need explanation but it is a good lead in for our discussions on the House of Representatives Health Care Bill.

The Death of the Canadian Model

by Russ Roberts on February 26, 2006
in Health

Proponents of single-payer health care reform in the United States have long pointed toward Canada as a model for the US to emulate. The New York Times reports that the Canadian system is imploding. A recent Candian Supreme Court decision allowed private health care (oh, the shame, the horror) and as a result, Canadians tired of waiting for radiation therapy, eye surgery and hip replacements have turned toward private alternatives springing up under the new legal environment.

The Times reports:

Canada remains the only industrialized country that outlaws privately financed purchases of core medical services. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other politicians remain reluctant to openly propose sweeping changes even though costs for the national and provincial governments are exploding and some cancer patients are waiting months for diagnostic tests and treatment.

But in a Supreme Court ruling last June it found that a Quebec provincial ban on private health insurance was unconstitutional when patients were suffering and even dying on waiting lists. This appears to have become a turning point for the entire country. "The prohibition on obtaining private health insurance is not constitutional where the public system fails to deliver reasonable services," the court ruled.

The key paragraph:

The country’s publicly financed health insurance system — frequently described as the third rail of its political system and a core value of its national identity — is gradually breaking down. Private clinics are opening around the country by an estimated one a week, and private insurance companies are about to find a gold mine.

Fast forward to 2009 and clinics specializing in everything from Audiology to Weight Loss are now in place throughout Canada. http://www.findprivateclinics.ca/