Published October 2005

Canadian health-care system
is ailing

By Don Brunell
Guest Editorial

Long waits for critical medical procedures, lack of access to new technology, rising taxpayers’ costs and fiery debates over how to fix a broken health-care system.

Are we talking about the American health-care system? No, Canada’s.

Implemented in 1971, Canada’s national health-care system is expensive and inefficient. In fact, American shoppers crossing the border are shocked when they have to shell out 15 cents on each dollar for sales tax. More than half of that sales tax revenue goes to support that country’s government-run health-care system, which has been riddled by consumer complaints and doctor and health-care worker strife.

Canada’s health care, held by American supporters of “single payer” health care as a model our country should follow, isn’t working, and Canada’s highest court recognized that in a recent landmark decision.

Here’s what happened: Told that he would have to wait a year for surgery to replace his painful, arthritic hip, 73-year-old George Zeliotis of Quebec decided to pay for the procedure himself. But Zeliotis was shocked to learn that it’s against the law in Canada to get private medical care.

In fact, according to the Pacific Research Institute, Canada, Cuba and North Korea are the only countries that ban private health care, whereas countries like France and Switzerland allow their citizens to purchase supplemental health insurance on the open market.

Instead of driving across the border to get medical care in the United States, as thousands of his fellow Canadians do each year, Zeliotis decided the law was unfair and sued. In a 4-3 ruling, Canada’s Supreme Court struck down the Quebec law that bans private medical insurance.

The ruling stops short of declaring the national health-care system unconstitutional, although three of the justices wanted to do just that. It said it just isn’t working, and the decision is expected to overturn similar provincial bans throughout Canada.

The Supreme Court made it clear: Canada must either provide workable health care or allow a private system that does. According to the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute (British Columbia), Canadians now wait an average of 17.9 weeks for surgery and other therapeutic treatments, which is up from 9.3 weeks in 1993.

“Access to a waiting list is not access to health care,” wrote Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin. The court added that prohibiting private care “is not constitutional where the public system fails to deliver reasonable services.”

This ruling should be a wake-up call for supporters of single-payer, government-run health care in the United States. But despite clear and convincing evidence that government-run health care doesn’t work, its supporters in our state and Congress unwisely continue to press forward.

Following the spectacular failure of the massive, national government-run health-care proposal dubbed “Hillary Care,” activists changed tactics and are working to dismantle America’s health-care system one piece at a time. Even now, California lawmakers are expected to approve a state-run system of single-payer, universal health care.

Imposing a troubled and failing single-payer health-care system in the United States would not solve our problems, it would only make them worse. Our system isn’t perfect and needs improvement, but we have to remember we have the highest-quality and most timely medical care in the world.

Besides, if the United States adopts a single-payer system, where will Canadians go to get timely, quality health care? Perhaps they will stay in Canada, given the recent trend and, if America goes the way Canada went in 1971, there will be a reverse migration north for wait-listed procedures.

Don Brunell is president of the Association of Washington Business, Washington state’s chamber of commerce. For more information on AWB, go online to www.awb.org.

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