Take a firm stand against user fees

[CHIMO]

Canadians could be forgiven for feeling safely above the fray during the bitter U.S. health-care debate. Not so fast.

While the Americans are taking a slow step forward, Canadians may soon be taking a quick step backward from the universal health-care system they have spent decades building up and protecting.

The first salvo was launched by the Quebec government, which this week proposed a thinly disguised user fee that would punish patients for being sick. User fees hurt – and humiliate – low-income people who are more prone to illness and most sensitive to costs. No one should be made to feel that health care is a matter of charity, rather than a basic right that Canadians cherish.

The Quebec government, Ottawa and the federal Liberals are all being too clever by half. The Quebec proposals are a political sleight of hand, a medical mistake and a social policy blunder. They will do nothing to prevent rising health-care costs, which are more a function of growing pharmaceutical expenses and persistent inefficiencies in the system. The idea that patients are somehow driving demand has long ago been discredited by health economists, who point to physicians as the gatekeepers of the system.

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/789227--take-a-firm-stand-against-user-fees

Opinion: Reality check on health-care costs

Medicare is as sustainable as we want it to be

The headlines scream health-care costs are out of control. Last week's Quebec budget floated the notion of user fees. At the Montreal Liberal policy conference, David Dodge, former governor of the Bank of Canada, spoke for many when he claimed that the only options were higher taxes, user fees or poorer services.

However, noted UBC economist Robert Evans reminds us to be wary of the rhetoric of unsustainability setting up limited choices. In fact, a closer examination reveals that medicare's expenses have been relatively stable and the best cost-control option focuses on enhanced quality.
During the depths of Canada's last serious recession in 1992, Canada spent 10 per cent of its economy on health care. Canadians were concerned and governments froze budgets. Then the economy boomed. Five years later, we spent less than 9 per cent of GDP on health. In a few years, we became concerned about underfunding. Governments had lots of money and we deliberately ramped up spending.

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/789268--opinion-reality-check-on-health-care-costs

We need to hear where our politicians stand on this!

[daleo]

1. I agree with the article.

The alarms about Medicare don't come from average people - it's a refrain of certain elites. The public supports public health care unreservedly, as it does public education. There are always disagreements about the actual operation of these programs, but that is normal in any human endeavor.

The article makes the interesting point that it is the sectors of health care least under public control that are increasing in costs the most. So a retreat from public funding will raise overall costs, not lower them.