July 23, 2009

Norman Embree and his boss Kevin Falcon spread a number of
myths about health care and make a tactical error.

Myth one: We can save money by spending less on health
care. Embree, chair of the Interior Health Authority,
thinks health care is too expensive and that we should allow
private clinics to reduce costs. Reduced public care will
drive desperate patients to the private sector but their
total health bill will rise, not fall. If the goal is to
reduce the total cost of health care, more should be spend
in the public sector.

Myth two: Health care is a commodity. Falcon, the B.C.
Minister of Health, says that "I don't have an objection to
people using their own money to buy private services just as
they do with dentists, just as they do with other decisions
they make -- you know, sending their kids to private school
or what have you."

Falcon correctly says that we should be able spend our money
on whatever we want but fails to mention that governments
must limit what people can purchase. Governments must
protect consumers from what they can buy; from the purchase
of contaminated food, toxic drugs and dangerous electrical
appliances.

The purchase of health care is not only illegal and
un-Canadian; it doesn't even make economic sense. Our
single-payer system is most efficient.

The Canada Health Act was passed in order to protect society
from the commercialization of basic health services. The
primary objective of the act is "to protect, promote and
restore the physical and mental well-being of residents of
Canada and to facilitate reasonable access to health
services without financial or other barriers."

Myth three: The U.S. is a model of health care. Embree says
"I can go to Seattle and get something done tomorrow if I
really want to. I'm from Ontario. Buffalo (New York) has
been advertising for years in Toronto - go down and get your
MRI."

Anyone is free to shuffle down to Buffalo. However, the
U.S. health care model is something to be avoided, not
emulated. The U.S. has the worst health care system in the
industrialized world where more citizens have no medical
coverage than the entire population of Canada.

Myth four: Private insurance is inevitable. "In 40 to 50
years," predicts Embree, "they will come in." Unless Embree
envisions that Canadians will completely lose their senses,
why would we embrace insurance companies that picks only the
healthiest as clients and avoids those who are in need of
health services? To be profitable, insurance companies must
insure only those who are least likely to use it.

Myth five: Private clinics are a taboo subject. "We've had
a two-tier system for years, but nobody wants to admit it,"
complains Embree.

There is nothing inherently wrong with private clinics;
every time I see a doctor, I am visiting a private practice.
However, I don't expect that my doctor will try to sell me a
discount tonsillectomy or prescriptions from his drug
cabinet.

Also, private clinics serve those not covered by Medicare
which "excludes members of the Canadian Forces, persons
appointed to a position of rank within the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police, persons serving a prison term in a federal
penitentiary … or [persons] under the workers' compensation
legislation of a province or territory."

Embree is mistaken to conflate private clinics with a health
care marketplace.

Extra-billing is explicitly forbidden by the Health Act.
"Extra-billing is seen as a barrier or impediment for people
seeking medical care and is therefore, contrary to the
accessibility criterion," says the act.

Embree is confused when he compares private clinics in the
U.S. to private clinics in Canada. He imagines that because
U.S. clinics operate outside the Canada Health Act that
private clinics here are also exempt.

Tactical error: If you are going to undermine health care,
do it by stealth. Underfund and restrict health care
spending so people are driven to the private clinics while
espousing the merits of the public system.

Now that Falcon and Embree have revealed their true
intentions, how can we believe that underfunding of health
care is motivated by anything else but ideological support
of a costly private health care system?

It's refreshing to hear politicians and their appointees
speak their minds, regardless of how misguided they are,
although it would have been more honest for them to do so
before elections rather than after.
 

David Charbonneau is the owner of Trio Technical.
He can be reached at dcharbonneau13@shaw.ca

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