Allow me to introduce you to Stephane Dion, the new leader of Canada's federal Liberal Party (the official opposition party to the current minority Conservative government). But will he be as green as he claims to be?
Medication will be the second largest expense in Canadian health this year — second only to the cost of running hospitals. Broken down: physicians account for 13.1% of total health expenditure, hospitals 29.8% and drugs, both prescribed and non-prescribed, account for 17%. Canadians will spend an estimated $148 billion for health care by the end of 2006.
First, I think you're right about the bureaucracy. There are gross inefficiencies in the system that most Canadians are aware of -- and there have been repeated calls for reform (I believe a recent commission said as much). The system could be made much more efficient.
But I also think that Canadians, unlike Americans, may be more inclined to opt into healthcare simply because the option is there to do it affordably. If you build a universal healthcare system, they will come. I have no statistics to back this claim, it's just a suspicion.
Hi Martin,
ReplyDeleteA couple of quick things come to mind.
First, I think you're right about the bureaucracy. There are gross inefficiencies in the system that most Canadians are aware of -- and there have been repeated calls for reform (I believe a recent commission said as much). The system could be made much more efficient.
But I also think that Canadians, unlike Americans, may be more inclined to opt into healthcare simply because the option is there to do it affordably. If you build a universal healthcare system, they will come. I have no statistics to back this claim, it's just a suspicion.
Cheers,
George