Medicare (Canada) - Proposed Reforms

Proposed Reforms

One proposed solution for improving the Canadian healthcare system is to increase funding. Proponents of this approach point to the rise of neo-conservative economic policies in Canada and the associated reduction in welfare state expenditure (particularly in the provinces) from the 1980s onwards as the cause of degradation in the system. In fact, there is evidence that the percentage of total government expenditures spent on healthcare has been increasing, in part due to a higher percentage of older Canadians.

Other critics of healthcare state that increased funding will not solve systemic problems in the healthcare system including a rising cost of medical technology, infrastructure, and wages. These critics say that Canada's proximity to the United States causes a "brain drain" or migration of Canadian-trained doctors and nurses (as well as other professionals) to the United States, where private hospitals can pay much higher wages and income tax rates are lower (partially because health care is not covered through taxation). Some of these critics argue that increased privatization of healthcare would improve Canada's health infrastructure. Others argue vehemently against it. For example, large resources are required to train and educate doctors. Since the number of available doctors is therefore limited, doctors working for a private system would not be working under the public system creating little to no net increase in available services.

Critics of greater privatization state that healthcare should be kept public, (public in funding only, as most services are provided by the private sector including doctors who in most cases are private corporations) in part because it separates Canadians from Americans by mandating equality and fairness in health care. This is in contrast to other states where doctors are on a per capita based salary. In this sense the Canadian Healthcare system is merely a publicly funded one where services are provided by a mixture of public and private entities, which most Canadians appreciate and desire. Changing the system to eliminate the balance between public and private service providers to a completely public system is one such alternative.