A
recent health care study conducted by the Fraser Institute ranks
Canada among the worst within the OECD countries and yet Canada has
the highest health care spending as percent of the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP). This study includes the conclusion that
"The models that produce superior results and cost less
than Canada’s monopoly-insurer, monopoly-provider system have:
user fees; alternative, comprehensive, private insurance; and
private hospitals that compete for patient demand… The
overwhelming evidence is that Canada has a comparatively
underperforming system of health care delivery, and needs to
emulate the more successful models available elsewhere amongst
those countries that offer their citizens universal access to
health care."
It is worth to share ideas and compare health systems among
different countries, however we must also recognize that the ranking
of health systems doesn’t provide dogmatic conclusions as per which
system we must emulate to have a better health system.
I remember for instance when some years ago I pointed out the
irrelevancy of Saskatchewan Health’s policy to rank its provincial
health districts in terms of their efficiency in providing different
health care services. At that time I stated that such ranking didn’t
provide the health districts with the course of actions needed to
better their services.
Today with this Fraser Institute’s study, the ranking of Canada
as one of the worst health care provider within the OECD countries
is not an evidence that we must emulate (or copycatting) other
systems. And in fact it is my contention that our health care system
is undeperforming mostly because of mismanagement rather than the
lack of user fees or the lack of private insurance or the lack of
private hospitals that compete for patient demand.
We have written a lot about the incompetence of our Saskatchewan
politicians, the incompetence of our health care administrative
gurus and the fraudulent studies of our health researchers. The
realization of this widespread corruption induced me to label our
Saskatchewan Health Care as the Mississippi Burning of the Year
1964.
Today I have realized that this widespread corruption is not
limited to our province of Saskatchewan, it is world wide and it is
called Free Market, a market of deliberate confusion where big
businesses have taken over people and where pigs fly. And this
deliberate confusion has been camouflaged as instant democracy by
our elitist leaders as they keep bombarding us common people with
opinion polls/surveys.
So we have the health survey conducted last May/June by the
Canadian magazine Today’s Parent ranking Saskatchewan as the worst
province and then we have the health survey conducted last July by
the polling firm Ipsos-Reid concluding that Canadians have given
their doctors and the overall health-care system high marks and that
Saskatchewan residents give high marks to health care.
Thank you Fraser Institute for yet another dogmatic inconclusive
study.
References
Past work by Mario deSantis and pertinent articles published by
Ensign
Canada Spends the Most on Health Care Among OECD Countries but
Ranks Low on Key Health Indicators Dr. Michael Walker, Executive
Director, The Fraser Institute, Release Date: August 19, 2002
http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/shared/readmore.asp?sNav=nr&id=475
http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/admin/books/chapterfiles/Executive%20Summary-pages1-6.pdf#1
Saskatchewan Health Care: Mississippi Burning of the Year 1964 By
Mario deSantis, February 26, 2000 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2000/desantis125/firefighters.html
Cross-Country Checkup. Which province delivers the best health
care to kids and families? By Judy Waytiuk and Steve Brearton,
Today’s Parent, June 2002 http://www.todaysparent.com/health_safety/article.jsp?cId=989384
Report card gives health care good marks Chris Morris, August 19,
2002 Canadian Press http://chealth.canoe.ca/health_news_detail.asp?news_id=4384
Sask. residents give high marks to health care By Anne Kyle, The
Star Phoenix, Saskatoon, August 19, 2002 |