The Canadian single payer health care system is imploding, with unconscionable waiting periods—currently 18.2 weeks for surgeries—and about 5 million out of 33 million people unable to find their own doctors. It is a system that sucks up about 50% of BC’s budget (as one example), but in which free market financing solutions are supposedly “unCanadian”—yet, where those with means (such as the premier of Newfoundland) often “jump the queue” to seek treatment in the USA.
Sensing a market opportunity, an insurance company is offering Canadians a private policy that will pay for treatment and diagnostic services in the USA, including at the world famous Mayo Clinic. From the Ottowa Citizen story:
A new private health-insurance plan is promising to provide Canadians with care at the renowned Mayo Clinic in the United States, but critics are urging buyers to beware. Currently, a handful of B.C. and Ontario companies act as brokers for Canadians seeking medical treatment at U.S. facilities. The new program by Assured Diagnosis Inc. of Calgary is believed to be the first to offer access to a centre such as the Mayo Clinic. Policyholders are promised access to diagnostic expertise and second opinions delivered remotely by electronic consultations between Canadian physicians and Mayo Clinic experts. They are also promised onsite care, “if deemed appropriate,” at the Mayo Clinic’s sites in Minnesota, Florida and Arizona. The insurance plan is aimed at Canadians up to age 75 who may be at risk of serious illnesses such as cancer and heart disease. It is not available to those who have congenital, pre-existing or chronic conditions.
Of course warnings are being issued against horrible capitalists by those who like socialized solutions. But consider: If there is a viable insurance market for access to USA care in Canada—for which policy buyers will have to pay in addition to their taxes funding the disintegrating single payer approach—something is desperately wrong with Canada’s single payer approach.
