Reply #4: Editorial: Public health care cheapest and best

[CHIMO]

While debate rages in Canada over private versus public approaches to health care, elsewhere the evidence is pouring in that public is best.

In Britain, a major audit on the financial difficulties at London's public Queen Elizabeth Hospital shows that so-called P3s, or public-private partnerships, may promise savings but in fact carry overly heavy costs.

Meanwhile, in the United States, a study published this week in the prestigious American Journal of Medicine shows that the quality of care for Medicare patients is better when care is delivered by not-for-profit health plans, than by for-profit plans.

While many in Canada argue that the P3 concept is a good means of tapping private capital to help fund the country's burgeoning public infrastructure needs, the experience of the near-bankrupt London hospital underscores the fact that instead of reducing the risks to taxpayers, reliance on private money can actually increase those risks.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1135205411984

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