Canada's Health Care Lags Behind Europe

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American healthcare services continue to decline

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A new report released by a Canadian think tank group reveals that in comparison to 29 European countries, Canada scored quite low across the board:

While the Frontier Centre for Public Policy is technically an independent, non-partisan group, it has been touted as supporting neoliberal/conservative theories and policies.  Thus, the FCPP's findings should be taken with some degree of caution - if they do maintain a neoliberal bias, then suggesting a move towards a free market dominated by the private sector might reflect a skewed and self-serving vision.

Debate around public versus private health care within Canada is constantly maintained, as many issues have yet to be resolved and the two camps seem unable to marry the notion of a public and private system working in unison.  Compared to many other countries we have an impressive system in place, but it has many flaws.  Long wait times, a shortage of doctors (possibly due to a brain drain, as Canadian doctors relocate to the US to practice medicine), and provincial rather than federal management are some of the major issues that need immediate upheaval.

The report also fails to mention specifics of the European systems it compares Canada against; many EU countries pay considerably more than Canadians currently do for healthcare, are governed by a singular system that keeps redundancies and structural costs in check, and multi-tiered systems that allow those who can afford it to bypass wait-lists without compromising the quality of care available to everyone.  Canada also has a lower density of people than most European countries which creates issues for those who live in rural areas, but issues like this are not unique to Canadians.

I think that most successful examples of health care systems in other countries show that some privatization of medical services can be beneficial to a laregely public system.  As it stands the Canadian healthcare system is not socialized; doctors run private practices, and Canadians are free to purchase supplemental insurance (dental, prescriptions, etc.) from private companies, so there is some degree of the public/private sectors working in harmony.  What medical authorities are pushing for is for the private to step in and fill in any gaps which remain between basic coverage, which is provided to everyone by the government, and the extras, which generally are not.

With the Canadian elections coming up in 25 days, it will be interesting to see how the candidates address these charged issues and potential solutions within their party platforms.

A province-to-province index is expected to be released by the FCPP by the end of 2008.