Study finds Canada’s universal healthcare may stifle innovation
Canada is alone among high-income, universal health care nations in not allowing private medical insurance to cover some costs, a new study finds.
Currently, the provinces prohibit or severely restrict the ability of Canadians to pay private medical services under the Canada Health Act, says the Fraser Institute.
“The idea of using private insurance to cover some or all health-care costs – instead of taxpayers paying for it – has been pilloried in Canada for many years, but it’s a common feature of other universal health-care systems around the world,” says report author Steven Globerman, professor emeritus at Western Washington University.
Of the 17 high-income, universal health-care countries worldwide – including Australia, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands – all of them (except Canada) use private health insurance in some capacity to pay for medically necessary health-care costs, says Globerman.
Canada also has the longest wait times for treatment, ranking last (in 2016) for the percentage of patients who waited four weeks or longer to see a specialist, as well as those patients who waited four weeks or longer to get treatment, and last for the percentage of patients who waited four or more hours in emergency departments.
Globerman’s study says government health insurance models like Canada’s can limit or restrict access to innovative treatment in the interest of short-term cost savings.
“As Canada struggles with long wait times and high health-care costs, policymakers should educate themselves on the role of private insurance markets in other more successful universal health-care systems,” Globerman said.
