Quote:
Originally Posted by flamesfever
Simply raising wages is not getting to the heart of the problem. Trudeau is right when he says I am not going to simply throw money at the provinces. The main problem is the inefficiencies of the hospitals, as we have presently structured them.
The main impass, with regard to the Federal Government increasing the funding to the provinces, seems to be establishing accountability. With privatization, it seems to me that if the money is more targeted, in the case of funding these private clinics, the Government would more easily be able to quantify and compare results, and thereby justify the spending.
I believe it is common knowledge that the private sector is more efficient than the public sector, so theoretically moving the procedures from the hospitals to the clinics should give positive results with regard to waiting times. I believe this has been demonstrated in other countries.
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I think you missed my point in your first paragraph. I was saying that when we compare healthcare outcomes with European nations based on per person spending Canada often comes out behind. The argument you appear to be making is that this is do to a lack of private involvement. I’m suggesting that because we compete with the US for labour our labour costs are higher than our European counterparts and that is much of the reason for the difference in outcomes per dollar spent.
Reporting results is on thing I’d argue the government does far better than the private sector. It’s a cost that offers no income therefore unless it’s driving optimization the reporting you want done likely doesn’t as not happen unless mandatory.
I think it’s a significant myth that the private sector is always more efficient. In order for the competition motive to drive costs down and efficiency up you need low barriers to entry to ensure competition, you need a consumer with repeated opportunities to make a choice between provider, you need a consumer that is aware of the cost of their choice and you need a consumer that is knowledgeable enough to not be at a large information deficit. Without these things all efficiency is absorbed by profit and lower quality.
I’d suggest that expanding private health care to things like surgeries and hospital services is much closer to Canadian telecom or groceries then and industry that will have real competition. Remember that Saskatchewan has lower cell phone prices because of its public sector telecom. Could the private sector help? Yes in things like a Family doctor where you make many visits and have an opportunity for choice it likely works ok. The payment structure though clearly drives inefficiency into the system encouraging multiple visits. In any public funded private delivery system there will be drag as people game the system to maximize profit.