It has always been a Canadian absurdity that one can freely and without legal restraint acquire and then variously eat, drink or otherwise ingest things that can only do you harm... Things expert doctors warn against, in fact. Then, when you need treatment, present yourself at Emergency as a charge to the common purse. .Governments meanwhile, invariably reconcile themselves to the absurdity as long as sufficient excise tax is paid..As they should. It’s a freedom issue. If you want to enjoy beer and cigarettes, that really is up to you. And in a publicly funded health system that fixes emphysema and gun shot wounds without asking questions, nobody has a right to judge..But, try and spend your own money on your own health?.Now, it’s not a freedom issue any more, is it?.And under the Canada Health Act, it's also broadly speaking illegal..Broadly speaking… Yes, there are exceptions. But the exceptions merely expose the utter stupidity of the situation in which we semi-function..Think about it. You can buy a beautiful smile at a high-end dentist. You can also buy plastic surgery. You can fix your face and satisfy your vanity. .But heaven help you if you try to fix something really necessary. Something like the nauseating pain in your hip that you must endure for months, or the one in your knee, or in your wife’s hip, or your wife’s knee. That, you can’t fix with your own money..You must wait your turn..You must not be allowed to jump the queue. (Even if by taking yourself out of it, you shorten it for somebody else.).That would be un-Canadian..That it would also be un-Cuban or un-North Korean should tell you something about where Canadians place themselves in the world of ideas. It’s a bit like the Liberal government’s focus on climate change: They care but nobody else does..On Friday, Premier Smith was asked about a Calgary clinic that is going over to a fee-for-service business model..She panned it..She upheld the Canada Health Act and said her government was committed to its principles, and that those principles did not provide for private payment for publicly-funded services. Like doctor visits..Rachel Notley must have been proud of her. She may even be sending her an apology for all the nasty things she said on the campaign trail, doubting that Smith was campaigning on what she really believed in. Well, probably not. But at least, Smith validated her comments about taking a fresh view of things now that she was premier. To be fair, she had to..Trouble is, that's thin consolation when one understand that she has just offered a full-throated defence of a policy that is dead wrong. (And deep down, she still knows it.).Alberta will never have superb healthcare, as long as it has rationed healthcare. What we have is adequate, but often only available after waits that put us into a third-world table of comparison..This was the whole NDP attack on Smith, that she couldn't fix health care and they could. Not that they did when they had the chance, of course. But to get superb healthcare, things must change and improvement depends upon attracting private investment to build clinics, hospitals and whatever other facilities for which there is a need. When there is increased capacity, there will be better healthcare, and if an Albertan uses that capacity to take himself out of the queue, it shortens it for somebody else. As it is, the option is to hop the border to Montana and help pay for their fine medical facilities..We could keep that business here, and profit from it..Now, there are some caveats here. If every clinic started billing clients, where would people go who couldn't afford it? Fair question..It is however easily settled. There's a choice for these clinics to make: You either bill the client or you bill the government. You don't get to do both. But otherwise, it's perfectly legitimate to offer an alternative for those who can afford it to the typically industrial surroundings of the hospital emergency room, or lab services. They're not quite Solzhenitsyn's cancer ward but in a free country, you should have the option of something better if it's worth it to you..By the way, the fee-for-service won't go that far. The first few to try it may find a market for people prepared to pay $4,000 a year for concierge service. The next few will find no takers at that price and offer a discounted price. A few more people may go for it. But in the end you can only discount so far. There simply isn't the mass market for concierge healthcare..Or the widespread willingness to pay, period..There's an old joke that an American, a Scotsman and a Canadian get killed in a car crash and find themselves at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter appears with the bad news that Heaven's admissions are backed up, but for a thousand dollars each, they can all go back to life. The American whips out his credit card and poof! he's back to life in perfect condition. The Scotsman negotiates a better price but in a very short time, he's back to life in perfect condition. The American asks the Scotsman what happened to the Canadian. "Last I saw he was trying to get the government to pay the thousand dollars.".And that's the problem. Canadians have become so used to regarding health as something they don't have to pay for — even though they do and handsomely, through taxes — that they can't envisage any other way. But there is. (As the premier well knows. Funny thing is, health is a provincial 'lane' that the federal government seeks to occupy. The premier also knows this... I guess one Sovereignty Act challenge at a time.).The nasty thing is that Canadians, who without a shred of uneasiness accept as a birthright a standard of living that the Third World observes with envy but without apparent resentment, never appreciate the irony of their own resentment that one person may be able to afford a superior standard of health care to another..So the people who can, quietly go elsewhere. .Look, people have a right to spend their own money on their own healthcare. They shouldn't have to leave Canada to do it..It's that simple.
It has always been a Canadian absurdity that one can freely and without legal restraint acquire and then variously eat, drink or otherwise ingest things that can only do you harm... Things expert doctors warn against, in fact. Then, when you need treatment, present yourself at Emergency as a charge to the common purse. .Governments meanwhile, invariably reconcile themselves to the absurdity as long as sufficient excise tax is paid..As they should. It’s a freedom issue. If you want to enjoy beer and cigarettes, that really is up to you. And in a publicly funded health system that fixes emphysema and gun shot wounds without asking questions, nobody has a right to judge..But, try and spend your own money on your own health?.Now, it’s not a freedom issue any more, is it?.And under the Canada Health Act, it's also broadly speaking illegal..Broadly speaking… Yes, there are exceptions. But the exceptions merely expose the utter stupidity of the situation in which we semi-function..Think about it. You can buy a beautiful smile at a high-end dentist. You can also buy plastic surgery. You can fix your face and satisfy your vanity. .But heaven help you if you try to fix something really necessary. Something like the nauseating pain in your hip that you must endure for months, or the one in your knee, or in your wife’s hip, or your wife’s knee. That, you can’t fix with your own money..You must wait your turn..You must not be allowed to jump the queue. (Even if by taking yourself out of it, you shorten it for somebody else.).That would be un-Canadian..That it would also be un-Cuban or un-North Korean should tell you something about where Canadians place themselves in the world of ideas. It’s a bit like the Liberal government’s focus on climate change: They care but nobody else does..On Friday, Premier Smith was asked about a Calgary clinic that is going over to a fee-for-service business model..She panned it..She upheld the Canada Health Act and said her government was committed to its principles, and that those principles did not provide for private payment for publicly-funded services. Like doctor visits..Rachel Notley must have been proud of her. She may even be sending her an apology for all the nasty things she said on the campaign trail, doubting that Smith was campaigning on what she really believed in. Well, probably not. But at least, Smith validated her comments about taking a fresh view of things now that she was premier. To be fair, she had to..Trouble is, that's thin consolation when one understand that she has just offered a full-throated defence of a policy that is dead wrong. (And deep down, she still knows it.).Alberta will never have superb healthcare, as long as it has rationed healthcare. What we have is adequate, but often only available after waits that put us into a third-world table of comparison..This was the whole NDP attack on Smith, that she couldn't fix health care and they could. Not that they did when they had the chance, of course. But to get superb healthcare, things must change and improvement depends upon attracting private investment to build clinics, hospitals and whatever other facilities for which there is a need. When there is increased capacity, there will be better healthcare, and if an Albertan uses that capacity to take himself out of the queue, it shortens it for somebody else. As it is, the option is to hop the border to Montana and help pay for their fine medical facilities..We could keep that business here, and profit from it..Now, there are some caveats here. If every clinic started billing clients, where would people go who couldn't afford it? Fair question..It is however easily settled. There's a choice for these clinics to make: You either bill the client or you bill the government. You don't get to do both. But otherwise, it's perfectly legitimate to offer an alternative for those who can afford it to the typically industrial surroundings of the hospital emergency room, or lab services. They're not quite Solzhenitsyn's cancer ward but in a free country, you should have the option of something better if it's worth it to you..By the way, the fee-for-service won't go that far. The first few to try it may find a market for people prepared to pay $4,000 a year for concierge service. The next few will find no takers at that price and offer a discounted price. A few more people may go for it. But in the end you can only discount so far. There simply isn't the mass market for concierge healthcare..Or the widespread willingness to pay, period..There's an old joke that an American, a Scotsman and a Canadian get killed in a car crash and find themselves at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter appears with the bad news that Heaven's admissions are backed up, but for a thousand dollars each, they can all go back to life. The American whips out his credit card and poof! he's back to life in perfect condition. The Scotsman negotiates a better price but in a very short time, he's back to life in perfect condition. The American asks the Scotsman what happened to the Canadian. "Last I saw he was trying to get the government to pay the thousand dollars.".And that's the problem. Canadians have become so used to regarding health as something they don't have to pay for — even though they do and handsomely, through taxes — that they can't envisage any other way. But there is. (As the premier well knows. Funny thing is, health is a provincial 'lane' that the federal government seeks to occupy. The premier also knows this... I guess one Sovereignty Act challenge at a time.).The nasty thing is that Canadians, who without a shred of uneasiness accept as a birthright a standard of living that the Third World observes with envy but without apparent resentment, never appreciate the irony of their own resentment that one person may be able to afford a superior standard of health care to another..So the people who can, quietly go elsewhere. .Look, people have a right to spend their own money on their own healthcare. They shouldn't have to leave Canada to do it..It's that simple.
