High economic cost for patients and the economy
Imagine being told you need medical treatment, but have to wait for more than two months before you can get it. This is the average wait time experience for more than 900,000 Canadian patients. While some of them may be lucky enough to wait for their treatment without an impact on quality of life, others…
The government monopoly is clearly failing British Columbians
British Columbia’s health ministry recently announced it will invest $10 million to increase surgical capacity, with an eye on reducing wait times. Part of the plan involves contracting some surgeries out to private clinics, which now become temporary partners in the effort to deliver timely universal healthcare. This is sensible policy, but only a small…
Focus should be on supporting individuals slipping through the cracks, not subsidizing those who don’t need it
Calls for a national drug insurance program, commonly referred to as Pharmacare, can regularly be found in Canada’s media. While access to prescription drugs is an important component of any well-functioning healthcare system, there’s little evidence that an expanded government-run single-payer program is either necessary or ideal. When it comes to concerns about access to…
While wait times have stabilized, they have done so at an historically high of about 18.2 weeks – almost twice as long as in 1993
You know things are bad when the best you can say is “at least it hasn’t gotten any worse.” That, essentially, is the main takeaway from the Canadian Institute for Health Information’s updated report on wait times for healthcare in Canada. The media seems to have taken the bait, though, seemingly content with CIHI’s news…