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News of the Day ... In Perspective4/20/2007
Private medicine could help staunch Canadian brain drain According to the Canadian Medical Association Journal, one in nine Canadian-trained physicians�and one in five specialists�now practices in the United States. �No wonder�nearly two million of us are without a family physician,� states the lead editorial in Canada�s national newspaper (National Post 4/16/07). In most provinces, no more than 15% of doctors are accepting new patients. In Ontario, the largest �have� province, the figure is just 10%. The exodus is the equivalent of having two of 17 medical schools producing physicians for the U.S. every year for the past 25 years. �It�s not hard to see the cause: socialized medicine� reads a bold-faced break-out quotation. There was a dramatic spike in physician departures in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s �as government gained more and more control over primary and specialized care.� Not only were doctors limited in the way they could practice medicine, they were seen by bureaucrats as �cost centres.� Fewer doctors meant fewer tests, fewer procedures, and fewer billings to medicare. More taxpayer money won�t solve the problem. To keep and attract more doctors, government will have to permit them to earn more money. And �the additional money is going to have to come from consumers.� In British Columbia, a �whiff of freedom� is in the air, writes John Williamson, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (National Post 4/17/07). A Vancouver clinic that was forbidden to treat B.C. residents in December has re-opened its doors to the public. The False Creek Urgent Care Centre will charge $199 for a basic medical evaluation and offer patients a menu of other services. The clinic owner, Dr. Mark Godley, has imported a business model from Quebec. He has recruited physicians from outside the province not enrolled in B.C.�s Medical Service Plan. Some opponents of timely medical access are worried that more Canadian-trained doctors will follow the False Creek example and opt out of the public system, thereby starving it of needed talent. Yet the results of a new study suggest that Canada�s socialist medical system is itself the cause of our country�s doctor shortage,� writes Williamson. Citing the study referenced above, Williamson thinks that �the economics of Canada�s stifling command-and-control medical system is responsible for this exodus of talent. Permitting more private care, choice and competition in Canada will result in more doctors working in Canada, not fewer.� Public opinion has shifted: �Fewer and fewer Canadians believe mandatory wait lines are superior to private alternatives.� Some, apparently, are even willing to pay for something that is covered by public insurance. Additional information:
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