Canadian Health Care

Cafe Hayek comments on the Canadian health care system:

The New York Times reports that the Canadian system is imploding. A recent Candian Supreme Court decision allowed private health care (oh, the shame, the horror) and as a result, Canadians tired of waiting for radiation therapy, eye surgery and hip replacements have turned toward private alternatives springing up under the new legal environment.

But isn't this a good solution, a hybrid of government funded and privately funded health care? Why is the emergence of privately funded care the death of anything?

Having a cost-controlled, single payer system will certainly have some limitations. But it has the key benefits of (a) controlling the skyrocketing costs of health care, which as I have tried to point out many times is more than just the cost of insurance, which is destined to be in the not too distant future a serious dead weight on the economy and (b) providing needed care for everyone. Including privately funded health care in addition, will allow those better off to get care that would otherwise be limited.

This is not an either-or situation. One of the problems in addressing the looming crisis of health care costs is that we try to find a single solution that will address all needs, and such a solution does not exist.

Critics of a single-payer system will point to the limitations and delays found in countries that have implemented such a system, concluding that it's not a good thing. They point to the benefits of our privately funded system, ignoring the fact that Americans pay more for health care than anyone else, that the costs of that care are already dragging down the economy and those effects are going to get dramatically worse in the coming years, and that a large percentage of the population does not have the insurance to cover these costs and therefore get inadequate health care.

Advocates for a single payer system will point to those limitations of the current system, but ignore the price tag, both in terms of money and quality, that comes with their system.

The reality is we need both. We need absolute controls on costs, that would come by having a government agency provide coverage for all Americans at agreed upon prices. But that should not preclude the affluent from getting private insurance. Those who can afford it should certainly be able to get it. So, contrary to Cafe Hayek's view, this development in Canada points the way to a good solution to the problem here in the US.