Public or Private?

[Eosinophil]

I'm confused about this statement (It's from Wiki so it may be incorrect):

"The health care system in Canada is funded by a mix of public (70%) and private (30%) funding, with most services delivered by private (both for-profit and not-for-profit) providers."

 

I thought the system was fully publicly funded!

 

Also, do we have private clinics that provide services normally provided by the public system? Isn't it illegal to operate such clinics?

 

Thanks

[rmorelan]

I'm confused about this statement (It's from Wiki so it may be incorrect):

"The health care system in Canada is funded by a mix of public (70%) and private (30%) funding, with most services delivered by private (both for-profit and not-for-profit) providers."

 

I thought the system was fully publicly funded!

 

Also, do we have private clinics that provide services normally provided by the public system? Isn't it illegal to operate such clinics?

 

Thanks

 

Hi there!

 

Whether you call it fully funded or not depends on how you are defining the scope of health care. Take Canada - why isn't dentistry, optometry and the bulk of medication covered by our health care system? Those things are often more important than some of things we do cover and are certainly areas of health care, but they are excluded (and they are not always excluded in other countries - Britain for instance has a publically funded system for dentistry and medication).

 

That 70% number is actually quite correct if you consider all aspects of mainstream health care

[Jochi1543]

There are also private options for some publicly funded services that feature long wait times. E.g. you can pay out of pocket to get a quick MRI, bypassing the public queue.

[Eosinophil]

Thanks for clarifying rmorelan and Alastriss.

 

There are also private options for some publicly funded services that feature long wait times. E.g. you can pay out of pocket to get a quick MRI, bypassing the public queue.

 

WOW. so this is legal? If it is then there is some privatization already, isn't it?

[rmorelan]

Thanks for clarifying rmorelan and Alastriss.

 

 

 

WOW. so this is legal? If it is then there is some privatization already, isn't it?

 

In very narrow cases it is. Diagnostic imaging is one of the few areas it has cropped up. It's actually one of the wedge issues in the privatization debate (the whole slippery slope thing).

[terryann]

I believe in Calg some family dr's will charge a flat fee and be available to you 24/7 and make house calls...which are not funded under the provincal health plan.

As well, in Toronto there are private clinics where you pay X amount, and you go and get a complete diagnostic health evaluation ...including mri's etc..and then you meet with the doctors as a group once all tests are complete etc...I believe this clinic is quite expensive.

Thus I believe private clinics for those with the funds are available in Canada..I do not think this is a booming business as Canadians whether rich or poor have access to health care.

[hkmedic]

Thanks for clarifying rmorelan and Alastriss.

 

 

 

WOW. so this is legal? If it is then there is some privatization already, isn't it?

 

Yup, well these physicians operating the private clinics do not bill the 'public system'.

 

Also, just to add to rmorelan's points, our taxpayer dollars basically cover these 3 areas of costs:

1. Physician Costs

2. Hospital Costs

3. Administration Costs

 

And he is right about things like dental, home care, ambulatory care, therapy, etc. not being covered, and that's why we have private health insurance for those services.

 

Another thing that also confused me at the beginning was the term "private providers". The majority of our doctors work for a private hospital, despite being publicly funded. I think the easiest way to picture this is to compare this to Britain's NHS, where doctors are basically government employees.

[Bede]

eosophil,

 

Private delivery of medical care (anything) is legal in Canada. The only catch is that a physician cannot bill the province as well for your services (both as a top up for your fees or for "poorer" patients). However, the federal government will gladly send the physician RCMP officers, soldiers, federal inmates, etc. because you will get an $80000/yr RCMP officer back to work quickly is more than worth the fees. See Camby Clinic.

[Star1234]

This is an excellent article that might answer some of your questions:

 

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/354/16/1661

 

I know that in Quebec, private clinics have been legal since 2006 and many people (not just the rich but generally middle class) choose private clinics when the waiting times for their required procedure is unreasonable.

 

Personaly, I'd like to have the option of paying a little bit extra to have an MRI within the next week versus waiting a year and having my cancer metastasize throughout my entire body by then.