Obama's Health Care Plan

I haven't blogged in a while and since there are so many issues that have come up since, I thought I would focus just on one. Obama's health care plan has undoubtedly taken a toll on his approval ratings which are nowhere nearly as high as they were earlier this year. Most of us by now are well aware of the Republican smear campaign which has attacked our health care system in Canada and is even getting notice across the pond as the NHS in Britain is also being frequently attacked by the Republicans. Some of the accusations are inaccurate while some are just outright stupid such as those made by Sarah Palin. Nonetheless, one cannot deny Canadians and Americans are far apart on the issue of health care and simply trying to adopt something mid way between the two would be considered hard core socialist in the US while hard core right wing in Canada. I fully prefer the Canadian system over the American system, but I do realize due to different value systems, trying to copy the Canadian system in the US wouldn't make sense just as trying to copy the American system here would be even dumber. I nonetheless do believe that the private sector should be allowed to operate along side the public sector like it does in most European countries provided the public system is available to everyone regardless of income or health status and the private system is run by doctors who work exclusively in the private system and receive no public subsidy.

Much of the attacks on the Canadian health care system are based on false premises. One of them is people die due to long waiting times. While waiting times are a problem that must be addressed, if your illness is life-threating, you will be treated right away. Only if it is non-life threatening does it involve long wait times such as a hip replacement. In essence, any parallel private system should only be available for non-life threatening illnesses and injuries here in Canada. Another myth is your doctor will be a civil servant. While it is true in Britain, the NHS runs most hospitals, Canada's system is one of public financing but private delivery. Otherwise the doctors operate much the same way they do in the US, only they bill the government instead of the patient or insurance company. The other myth, which is the most false of them all is that the government will decide where you can be treated and what can be treated. In fact, you can see any doctor you want in Canada, whereas in the US you can only see doctors that your insurance company says you can, so you actually have more freedom, not less freedom under the Canadian system. As for what the Conservatives should do, I believe they should correct some of the errors being presented on the Canadian system, but at the same time stay out of the debate otherwise as what type of health care system the US chooses to adopt as this is their choice, not ours, just as they have no right to tell us what health care system to adopt. In addition, the Obama plan only calls for a public plan to be available to those who don't have private insurance, the private insurance schemes would continue to exist. In many ways, he is only expanding medicare and medicaid to include the 47 million who have no insurance. Still, one should recognize that Americans have a much stronger mistrust of government than Canadians do and tend to be more rugged individualists versus communitarian in their views, thus it only makes sense their system would be different.

One type of system those who support universal health care might consider looking at is the Dutch and the Swiss systems as both are universal in terms of 100% of the population is insured, but at the same time still allow private insurers to compete. I am against Canada adopting such system, but based on the views Americans have on universal health care, trying to adopt either the Canadian or British or in fact the systems of most other industrialized nations is doomed for failure. In the Dutch and the Swiss system, every person must have health insurance by law. The insurance companies must accept everyone who applies and may not charge differential rates or refuse someone because they are too high a risk. The social welfare system covers those who are unemployed or on social assistance. If a person needs medical treatment, the insurance company must pay out the whole cost, they cannot look for reasons to avoid paying for the treatment like many US insurance companies do. A patient has the right to visit any doctor they wish and the insurance company cannot dictate which physicians they see nor can any physician be they public or private refuse a patient due to who they are insured by. In order to avoid a loss for companies that take high risk patients, all insurance companies are required to put money into a pool and those with the highest percentage of claims and high risk patients can take money out of the pool to compensate for this, thus there is no profit incentive to refuse high risk patients as there is in the US. This may not be the only solution, but it is probably about the furthest Obama can go without taking a big hit in public opinion.