Editor:
The presentations by Dr. Duncan Etches and Colleen Fuller (Coast Reporter, March 6) in support of B.C.’s government monopoly on the provision of health care were in defence of the indefensible.
The prestigious Commonwealth Fund recently rated Canada’s health care system at the bottom of the league in comparison to the health care systems of 10 other wealthy, developed countries. Only the U.S. performed worse. That study is the latest in a series by the OECD and the WHO to conclude that the Canadian health care system suffers from inefficiency and an inability to provide timely care.
Canada performed particularly poorly at efficiency, equity and timeliness of care (wait lists!). All nine countries that outperformed Canada have universal access based on need and all provide more comprehensive and timely coverage than in Canada. Notably, they all have a mixture of public and private health care facilities and medical insurance across the spectrum.
Most of those countries also spend less money per person than we spend on the health care system in B.C.
A government monopoly on the provision of hospitalized care and services is the problem, not the solution. Much of the rest of the system, from physician services to medical laboratories and diagnostic facilities, has always been private.
The monopoly on hospitalized care suffers from the well-documented inefficiencies associated with all monopolies, including a badly bloated bureaucracy. It needs the discipline and innovation that can only come through healthy competition.
Anyone who has experienced the quality, timeliness and flexibility of care in Western Europe will recognize how poorly our system performs. It’s not that we have bad doctors, nurses or facilities. We don’t. It’s because we have an unworkable and obsolete model — an inefficient and ungainly government monopoly. It’s a holdover from the 1960s that’s resistant to change, innovation or competition.
Keith Maxwell, Sechelt
