Canada: our health care system is sick.

Topping the agenda at this week’s annual Canadian Medical Association is curing the ails of their medical system.

“Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country – who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting – recognize that changes must be made.

We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize,” Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

The pitch for change at the conference is to start with a presentation from Dr. Robert Ouellet, the current president of the CMA, who has said there’s a critical need to make Canada’s health-care system patient-centred.

His thoughts on the issue are already clear. Ouellet has been saying since his return that “a health-care revolution has passed us by,” that it’s possible to make wait lists disappear while maintaining universal coverage and “that competition should be welcomed, not feared.”

In other words, Ouellet believes there could be a role for private health-care delivery within the public system.

He has also said the Canadian system could be restructured to focus on patients if hospitals and other health-care institutions received funding based on the patients they treat, instead of an annual, lump-sum budget. This “activity-based funding” would be an incentive to provide more efficient care, he has said.”

A few weeks ago, I wrote that as the left is making efforts to Frenchify our health care system, in France, the trend is moving toward some privatization. Over the last few months, conservatives have pointed to problems in the Canadian system, including long waiting periods and rationing of medical treatment, as an argument against implementing a government-run health care system in this country.

Canada and England control costs in a similar fashion – they create a budget for how much will be spent on health care, and they stick to it. So, in order to determine how that money gets spent and who gets treatment, they must ‘prioritize’ (read: ration) who gets what treatment and when.

The health care debate has highlighted the problems with this type of system. But, an admission from the Canadian Medical Association itself speaks volumes. Even with the news that the Obama administration *might* be backing away from the public option, the fight’s not over yet. We’ve heard stories from Canadian citizens who waited years for treatment, while their afflictions progressed to the point where it was too late for some. But, I for one, haven’t heard much from Canadian medical professionals themselves. And it’s crucial for Americans to recognize the problems these countries face and that many believe that the only cure for these problems is to move toward a system that looks more, not less, like the current American system. (Of course, for that reason, I don’t see this story getting much attention in the media.)

Tags: Canadian health care system, health care debate, socialized health care