Critical time for health care says new CMA President

Barbara Sibbald

doi:10.1503/cmaj.050916

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Private health care hoodwink
Tony Frost

Posted on: 18 August 2005

Posted on: (18 August 2005)
Page navigation anchor for Private health care hoodwink
Private health care hoodwink
Tony Frost
How can Ruth Collins-Nakai posssibly say "Personally, I don't ever want to see a situation in Canada where a patient cannot get service because they can't afford to pay" while supporting the notion of a private healthcare system? The reality of a pay-for-service system is that you must have the funds to pay for it and, as is witnessed in other countries with private healthcare systems, people do go without many medical s...
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How can Ruth Collins-Nakai posssibly say "Personally, I don't ever want to see a situation in Canada where a patient cannot get service because they can't afford to pay" while supporting the notion of a private healthcare system? The reality of a pay-for-service system is that you must have the funds to pay for it and, as is witnessed in other countries with private healthcare systems, people do go without many medical services due to a lack of funds.
While a private system certainly reduces a nations' tax burden, the services must be paid for. This is typically done by the user as they need the service. However, citizens will need to get insurance from a very early age as once an affliction hits, insurance companies either deny insurance or make the cost prohibitive.
Further, with today's medical advancments and the wonders of statistics, insurance companies are getting much better at predicting who will get what ailments (and adding opt-out clauses into their agreements) which ultimately mean fewer and fewer people will be able to afford or qualify insurance.
This of course will lead to the inevitable in a private healthcare scenario: Patients who cannot get service because they cannot afford to pay.
Conflict of Interest:
None declared
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Competing Interests: None declared.