A View Of Canadian Healthcare--It Is Not A Pretty Picture And Hardly What Proponents Say

Economist: Canadian Healthcare 'Anything But Free'

Many Americans who argue in favor of Canadian-style universal healthcare likely entertain the "mythical notion" that our neighbors to the north enjoy access to "free" quality care, according to a Canadian economist.

Healthcare in Canada is delivered through a publicly funded system, which is mostly free at the point of use. Most services are provided by private entities.

But Bacchus Barua, a senior economist with Canada's Fraser Institute, declares: "Healthcare in Canada is anything but free."

He disclosed that the average Canadian family of four pays about $11,320 a year in taxes for hospital and physician care. Many Canadians also pay for private insurance to cover such things as dental care and outpatient prescription drugs.

"Surely such expenditure is justified if Canadians receive a stellar healthcare system in return for their tax dollars," Barua writes in an article for The American. "Unfortunately, that simply isn't the case."

He offers some specifics:

• Canada has fewer physicians, hospital beds, and diagnostic imaging scanners, and performs fewer medical interventions than its American and European counterparts.
• Canada has one of the lowest physician-to-population ratios in the developed world.
• A recent survey found that Canadians must wait an average of about 4 1/2 months for medically necessary elective procedures after referral from a general practitioner.
• The wait for diagnostic imaging technologies like MRIs is over two months on average.
• Patients in Canada are likely to wait two months or more to see a specialist, six days or more to see a doctor when sick or needing care, and four hours or more in the emergency room.
• Due to the lengthy waits, about 40,000 Canadians leave the country for treatment elsewhere each year.
• Public drug plans covered only about a quarter of the new drugs approved for sale in Canada between 2004 and 2010.

Barua concludes: "These realities serve to dismiss the mythical notion that a Canadian-style healthcare system" is highly desirable.