Quebec’s health-care privatization a lesson for the whole nation
It will be provincial governments’ actions (or lack thereof) that open or shut the door to a two-tier health system.
Ask a random Canadian if our health system looks more like that of the United States or the United Kingdom. Chances are, most will respond that our system is nothing like the U.S. — which is largely paid for privately — and every bit like the U.K., which has publicly funded health care.
The reality is more of a cold shower.
When we look at data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which compares the wealthy countries of the world, we see that Canada is well ahead of most peer countries in terms of private financing, with a whopping 30 per cent of our health expenditures paid for through private health insurance or out-of-pocket spending.
This is 50 per cent more than the U.K., where private health spending is at 20 per cent, and three times as much as in France, where it’s only 10 per cent.
Now, a court case that is ongoing in British Columbia, known widely as the Cambie case, has some worried that we might see an even greater development of the private pay health-care market across Canada.
But will we?
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