History has repeatedly shown that government cannot solve the health-care crisis but instead is making the problem worse through poor management policies. For example, in 2013 the provincial government estimated 200,000 people in B.C. needed a family doctor. That same year, the province promised all residents access to a family doctor by 2015 with its $132-million "GP for Me" program. However, the B.C. government has failed to address the crisis and the related critical shortage of family physicians. Moreover, in the 1980s, government health-care planners postulated there were too many physicians in Canada, and so medical school places were cut. This was another disastrous shortsighted move.
Canada's primary problem is the outdated Canada Health Act which restricts private competition in the delivery of essential health-care services to residents of Canada. The OECD statistics (stats.oecd.org) of major economies place Canada as second worst in the effectiveness of delivery of health-care services. One solution is to adopt the highly effective health-care delivery model used in the Netherlands. In this system, the Dutch employ both private and public resources to ensure that the patient’s needs are met in a timely way.
This past June, I was visiting the Netherlands. During my stay, I had to seek emergency medical attention at a public hospital near Eindhoven which involved specialists, blood tests, X-rays, and CT scans. To my surprise, the emergency room arrival and waiting areas were almost empty and I was brought into the service area within 10 minutes of arrival in the late afternoon. Two hours later, all the tests were completed and I received a written letter of treatment and diagnosis which I used in my Canadian private medical travel insurance claim.
The sooner politicians get out of the business of managing and legislating health care, the sooner we will see improvements. The current monopoly by government must end. Free enterprise and competition yield continuous improvements in quality, quantity, costs and innovation; no better example can be found than in the Dutch model of health care.
Anthonie den Boef
Sidney
