The Battle for Private Health Care

What makes a country a great place to live? On top of the list would be health care. A

person will strive for success in all different areas only if one is physically and spiritually

healthy. A little overview of Canadian health care will give an insight of how it works. Canadian

health care, also called Medicare, is mostly delivered in private facilities and is publicly funded.

Simply put, patients get free service at private centres, and then those centers bill the provincial

government. Under the current law, practitioners can not privately charge patients if the

treatment is an insured service in the public system. For example, If the person is at the end of

the line for a hip replacement surgery, and wants to get it done privately, he, or she, can not do so

because hip replacement is an insured service in the public system. So, the government promises

the heath care, but doesn’t always deliver it in a timely manner. To allow for a private health

care, means to allow patients to get a procedure done privately and pay out of their own pocket.

There is an ongoing lawsuit on this issue filed by Dr. Brian Day, the orthopedic surgeon and the

co-owner of the Cambie Surgery Center, the private clinic in Vancouver. He is trying to achieve

the legalization of private health care for British Columbians, and ultimately Canadians, since all

of the provinces are in the same boat as BC, except Quebec. The BC patients should have a

constitutional right to access private health care, including surgical procedures, as it reduces the

waiting times, eases the pressure off the hospitals, and allows people to take care of their

personal health.

One of the benefits of private health care in BC is that it leads to shorter waiting times. A

matter of the long waiting lists to see a specialist is on the back of mind of every BC resident

who at some point seeks a specialist consultation. No doubt, in emergency situations our publicly
funded health care system is performing a satisfactory job. A different scenario is faced by the

patients awaiting non-emergency help, which could still be as painful and burdensome. For

example, to see a surgeon the patient needs to first go on the waiting list. Then, the patient goes

on the waiting list for the surgery. When a patient is forced to wait to get treatment, suddenly the

clock hand turns into a painful ticking bomb for the patient. The average waiting time to see a

specialist in BC is 22.4 weeks, or close to six months, and if we are talking surgery, then another

six months since your first specialist visit. This adds up to roughly a year since your visit to the

family doctor (Pamela, F, 2015).

Private health care reduces the waiting time by giving an opportunity for idling surgeons to

operate. According to Dr. Brian Day, there are two types of lines. One is where the patient waits

for the surgery, and the other one is where the surgeon waits in line to operate on the patient

(Pamela, F, 2015). The reason is simple, public hospitals are overloaded. There are more

surgeons, than there are operating rooms. So, we end up with idling surgeons, and patients on the

waiting list who are in desperate need of a surgery. The government’s financial shortages prevent

combining the duet of idling surgeons and awaiting patients in the private hospitals. The clear

solution is to annul the law that forbids practitioners to charge for procedures covered by the

public health care, and allow patients to pay out of their own pockets. This way those surgeons

who don’t get to operate due to government’s limited funding, can now provide private service

for those who seek. Clearly, private health care reduces the waiting time by having less people

waiting in the public line up. With people being able to get the surgery done privately, both sides

will benefit. The public surgery waiting list will be reduced since those who don’t want to wait in

line, can pay the price and do it faster.

Another reason to keep the idling surgeons busy, is brain drain. Medical professionals working in

public hospitals are government dependent, and unfortunately, medical sector of our economy

often experiences funding shortages. Some doctors decide to move to other jurisdictions where

they can practice private medicine and get a wage that is multiple times larger than is offered by

the government (Konrad, Y, 2016). Private heath care will prevent qualified medical

professionals from leaving the country.

Not only the private health care system will promote the shorter waiting times, but it will

also take the pressure off overcrowded public hospitals. The idea is to delegate simple, one day

surgeries to the private hospitals. This practice is already functioning with patients being able to

get private MRI, and CT scans, even though they are insured by the public system. If one is

facing a relatively minor problem, and needs to get the MRI done under the MSP plan, one will

be constantly moved down to the bottom of the list with more serious cases, such as cancer

diagnostic being a priority. Those people who don’t want to spend years waiting for a knee MRI,

can get it done privately the next day (Catherine, T, 2010). The goal of the private health care in

BC is to take the above medical imaging model, and apply it to surgeries. This way, public

hospitals can focus on serious surgeries, such as heart transplants, and private hospitals will offer

less vital procedures for those who can no longer wait at the bottom of the waiting list. Thus,

public hospitals will have smaller volume of people, and be working more effectively.

The province is aware of the overloaded hospitals, but still resists to make changes. In summer

2015, health Minister Terry Lake announced “that additional $10 million dollars will be devoted

to conduct up to 1,000 new surgeries, some of which will be done in private clinics, for those

who are waiting longer that 40 weeks” (Rob, S. A, 2015). Also, “The Vancouver Island Health
Authority is seeking private clinics to conduct 55,000 day surgeries over five years to ease the

pressure on hospital operating rooms” (Rob, S. A, 2015). Clearly, the provincial government is

aware of both, long waiting lists that go as high as 40 weeks, and the overcrowded surgery

rooms. Introducing additional funding for surgeries is analogues to taking a painkiller, and not

actually treating the problem, which will come up again in the future if constructive steps are not

undertaken.

There are a lot of opposing thoughts on this issue. The BC Health Coalition and Canadian

Doctors for Medicare claim that private health care system in Canada “could erase Medicare as

residents know it and create a two-tiered, U.S.-style health-care system” (Press, G. O, 2016). In

the above argument, Medicare supporters are utilizing an emotional appeal in delivering their

position (LIBS Reader, p.73). Stereotypically, the U.S. health care system is known to be worse

than in Canada. The emotional appeal is used indirectly by evoking patriotic desire to take

preventative measures and not let our country’s health care level descend to the American. In

contrast, Dr. Day tries to create a system that “resembles the European systems that receive

higher grades in international health-care rankings” (Press, G. O, 2016). Those private and public

parallel health care models are successfully functioning in many countries, such as Switzerland,

Germany, and France, where there are practically no waiting lines. Public health care advocates

are also claiming that private hospitals lack regulations and are unable to provide the required

level of medical service quality. Michael McBane, national coordinator for the Canadian Health

Coalition, mentioned that “we need to put in place professional standards for these facilities,

since right now, we don't have any idea what the provinces are doing with privatized health care

because they just don't report” (Lett, D, 2008). The argument presented in the interview with
Mr. McBane makes use of ethical appeal, where he demonstrates “a professionally erudite grasp

of the subject being talked about” (LIBS Reader, p.73). The solution to this may be to form

sanction bodies that will examine the private institutions to make sure they adhere with the

Canada Health Act. A competition between private health care providers will promote higher

quality health care delivered. Competition for patients will encourage private health care

providers to innovate so that they can deliver higher quality service at a lower cost. It is also known that

competition leads to higher productivity, therefore we may see private hospitals taking a lead in

increasing efficiency and further on passing that knowledge to public hospitals (Penelope, D, 2010).

This debate has been going on for a long time, and it seems that only doctors are

participating in it by splitting into pro-public or pro-private. The general public, in contrast, has

decided to take silent stand on this issue with no vocal activists trying to express their opinion.

This egoism may be a part of human nature, and it will last only until one’s friends or family will

directly face the infinitely long waiting list that seemingly curves around every mountain in BC

before it reaches the operating room. The prosperity of our country depends on our well-being. It

is in the matter of the Generation Z acting upon this issue to ensure that in sixty years from now

we don’t face the same health care problems. Instead, we should strive for a private health care

system with short waiting lists, hospitals that are stress free, and healthy people who are working

on prosperity of our country.

References

1) Pamela, F. (2015). Wait times to see a medical specialist in B.C. continue to grow.
Retrieved December 04, 2016, from http://www.vancouversun.com/news/wait times
medical specialist continue grow/11575050/story.html
2) Konrad, Y. (2016). If the dollar goes south, brains will follow. Retrieved December 04,
2016, from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/if-the-dollar-goes-south-brains-
will-follow/article28466632/

3) Catherine, T. (2010). MRI Scans: Waiting for Public Health Care vs. Paying for a Private
MRI Clinic. (n.d.). Retrieved December 04, 2016, from
http://www.bcliving.ca/health/mri-scans-waiting-for-public-health-care-vs-paying-for-a-
private-mri-clinic

4) Rob, S. A. (2015). B.C. calls on private surgery centres to help clear up wait lists.
Retrieved December 04, 2016, from http://www.vancouversun.com/health/calls private
surgery centres help clear wait lists/11099874/story.html

5) Press, G. O. (2016). Private Health Care Could Improve Hospitals For All: B.C. Lawsuit.
Retrieved December 04, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/09/06/medicare-
canada-lawsuit_n_11878990.html

6) BCIT Liberal Studies Reader For LIBS 7001. Publisher: Pearson

7) Lett, D. (2008). Private health clinics remain unregulated in most of Canada. Retrieved
December 04, 2016, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2276535/

8) Penelope, D. (2010). When and how provider competition can improve health care
delivery. Retrieved December 04, 2016, from
http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/when-
and-how-provider-competition-can-improve-health-care-delivery