Health needs fix, and fast

Mon May 14 08:13:13 2007
News & Press Releases

By: Jordan Michael Smith / The Ottawa Sun

There's an old saying that makes the rounds among health care workers. A national health care system can boast two of the following qualities, but it can never be all three: Good, fast and cheap. Whichever two priorities are chosen, the remaining one must be dropped.

As Canadians, we have chosen good and cheap. "Fast," we collectively decided, would have to take a backseat to affordable, high-quality care. The problem is that, over the past 20 years, our care has become so slow it has lost the "good" aspect. It's no secret: Canadians are losing their faith in universal health care.

About 1 million Canadians are on wait lists for treatment, according to the Canadian Medical Association. Most people can name a friend who flew south for some type of treatment.

Conservatives point to the American model as the one to be copied. They generally make two arguments. First, a government prohibiting individuals from accessing care they can afford is an infringement on basic rights of freedom and choice; second, private care provides better services than universal care.

The first argument is a matter of personal preference. Does one value individual freedom more than equal access? Or is the latter more important? Canadians have generally taken a middle ground in their answer, prioritizing freedom more than West Europeans but valuing equality of outcome more than Americans.

For the second argument, however, we have empirical evidence. Buttressing those of us who believe in universal care is a new book by Jonathan Cohn called Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis -- and the People who Pay the Price. Cohn, a senior editor at the New Republic, marshals powerful evidence to explain the serious problems with the U.S. system.

Among industrialized countries, America is the only one that doesn't provide coverage to all its citizens. More than 35 million people -- about the number of Canada's entire population -- goes without health in America. This is scandalous for a country that so many of us around the world rightly look to as a beacon of prosperity and hope.

Need an emergency dentist? Pull the tooth out with your hands. Did you break your arm? Tie your own sling. And don't even think about getting terminally ill.

Now, Canada has problems of its own. But that doesn't mean America is the country we should imitate to improve or even transform our system. In fact,the World Health Organization says the best system in the world belongs to France.

Yes, France. The country that gets joked about more than any other (except maybe America) and is maybe the last country on Earth where it's still okay to irrationally hate (again, maybe America).

BEST ON THE PLANET

France's care seems to be the best on the planet. As Cohn puts it, "The French have easy access to medical care -- easier, in fact, than their American counterparts ... Although they have slightly less technology than we do, statistically the French seem to do slightly better than Americans on most measures of health outcomes."

Cohn concedes that France's system is not perfect -- that ol' two out of three rule again -- it's just better than both Canadian and American systems of care.

The whole debate has to change. Instead of being America vs. Canada on health care (a battle Canada would still win), it should be America vs. Canada vs. various European nations. And for that debate, well, we still have a lot to learn.

Article originally appeared: Monday, May 14, 2007