{"id":2174,"date":"2009-08-17T12:31:36","date_gmt":"2009-08-17T16:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stonescryout.org\/?p=2174"},"modified":"2009-08-17T12:31:36","modified_gmt":"2009-08-17T16:31:36","slug":"the-canadian-health-care-plan-looking-more-like-the-american-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/?p=2174","title":{"rendered":"The Canadian Health Care Plan: Looking More Like the American One"},"content":{"rendered":"

Y’know, maybe that whole profit motive thing and competition wasn’t so bad after all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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SASKATOON \u2014 The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country’s health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it.<\/p>\n

Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country – who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting – recognize that changes must be made.<\/p>\n

"We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n

"We know that there must be change," she said. "We’re all running flat out, we’re all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands."<\/p>\n

The pitch for change at the conference is to start with a presentation from Dr. Robert Ouellet, the current president of the CMA, who has said there’s a critical need to make Canada’s health-care system patient-centred. He will present details from his fact-finding trip to Europe in January, where he met with health groups in England, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands and France.<\/p>\n

His thoughts on the issue are already clear. Ouellet has been saying since his return that "a health-care revolution has passed us by," that it’s possible to make wait lists disappear while maintaining universal coverage and "that competition should be welcomed, not feared."<\/p>\n

In other words, Ouellet believes there could be a role for private health-care delivery within the public system.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We already know that American<\/em> private health-care delivery already has a role.  <\/p>\n

And this is hilarious.<\/p>\n

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He has also said the Canadian system could be restructured to focus on patients if hospitals and other health-care institutions received funding based on the patients they treat, instead of an annual, lump-sum budget. This "activity-based funding" would be an incentive to provide more efficient care, he has said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Heh.  That "activity-based funding" is something like what we capitalists call "pricing".  We’ve found out that it’s a more efficient way to deal with supply and demand than government dictate.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Y’know, maybe that whole profit motive thing and competition wasn’t so bad after all. SASKATOON \u2014 The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country’s health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it. Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,18,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doug","category-government","category-medicine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t