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Originally Posted by GGG
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.
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What you really wanted to say is that who on earth would trust the provinces to setup a private healthcare delivery model where the people in charge wouldn't just do it in a way where it would benefit their corporate cronies?
There are of course lots of things a country could do to fix a fundamentally broken health care system.
We could look at successful European models and implement certain aspects as 'trials' to see if they would work.
Work with staff members in specific areas to implement some of their recommendations on a small scale, and level up as needed.
Do targeted funding increases to clear wait lists. I.E. where in Canada is the wait list for heart surgeries the longest? Work with that hospital to process through patients faster. Trial and error some of the things they suggest. Not talking how they perform surgery, but I'm sure they have a list of stuff that would help them operate more effectively. Give them a blank cheque for 1 year to implement changes.
What gets me is that the people who work at the hospitals likely have lots of recommendations on how to improve things, but talking to friends that are nurses, these recommendations are hardly ever looked at, much less talked about. Most changes are implemented after the government spends $30 million getting one of their cronies to do a 'review' and come up with a report on 'How To Fix Canadian Health Care 2023 Version.' There are course are versions for most other years as well.
Then you have politicians who from term to term either restructure everything into 1 major district, or in the next term restructure it again from 1 major district into 14 smaller districts, and they think they've done something!
It is amazing to watch, and both pathetic at the same time.
Of course, Canadians are also at fault, because we can hardly ever talk about health care changes without instantly launching into 'but we don't wanna be like the US.'
Usually that post is found 4-5 posts after someone suggests that perhaps we need to do something different.
Happens here, happens on Reddit, Twitter, everywhere. Its almost part of Canadian culture at this point.
Of course I have friends in the US who have insurance through their company, and they have access to WAY better health care.
But here in Canada I can only dream of actually finding a family doctor.
Fun times as a country. About to get even funner with as obesity further tears down the system.
