Will the British or French system work for us?

This is the million or billion dollar question for Canadian healthcare. Everyone says that our environment is better, we have better equality of income, and an abundance of resources as compared to Europe which is why we have a higher life expectancy than Europe even when the WHO ranks us much lower than them in our healthcare system. So, going with this theory, application of their healthcare system in our "better" environment will only yield better results!

Let us propose a study to use the British system and the French system in a couple of our healthcare regions in a chosen province, like Alberta for example. This study will be used to collect data about essential patient statistics ranging from quality feedback, wait times, repeat trips to overall health status. Once the study is completed, we can compare the numbers from the other health regions that use our current system and see if there is any differences in the results.

This study can give us a better idea of the what if? question. It can also highlight areas of improvement for our current system and we can then tell our politicians that we would like a system that is better and we have the proof of something that works. Of course, the study can also tell us that we are better off using our system and then perhaps we can be more satisfied with what we already have and ignore that WHO ranking anyway!

But...it's worth a try at least! What do you say?

How are the British and French better?

So, why did the WHO rank UK and France higher than us? They both have similarly universal healthcare plans as we do in Canada, and France even spends an equal amount of their yearly budget on healthcare. Here are some key differences then:

In the British system

• Prescription drug coverage is not standard in Canadian system whereas it is in the British.

• Their National Health Service has introduced incentives based funding to improve efficiency, this is lacking in Canada, which has lead to high wait times and no actions to change these inefficiencies.

• Patients have freedom in accessing specialized care faster through private insurance, which is against the law in Canada.

In the French system

• In contrast to both Canadian and British systems, there are no waiting lists for elective procedures in the French system and no pre-authorization is required.

• A referral is not need to see a specialist under the French system.

• Patients get covered for about 70% of healthcare costs by the state and can be covered up to a 100% by utilizing top-up private insurance under the French System.

• There is even a coverage plan for illegal immigrants under the French system.

Canadian Healthcare System 101

Okay, so if you are unaware as to how the healthcare system works in Canada, here's a brief description:

• Healthcare is universal, which means it is available to all Canadians.
• The 13 different provinces and territories have custom health insurance plans that make sure Canadians have healthcare available.
• The federal government protects Canadians by forcing the provinces and territories to make sure their plans cover basic features considered important in a healthcare system.
• These features include availability of complete healthcare to everyone regardless of income status, throughout the country regardless of home province, providing proper and fair public administration.

*All of these features are results of the Canada Health Act of 1984, which was aimed at providing healthcare protection for Canadians.

However, there are lingering problems with the healthcare system, identified by multiple reports. Included in those problems is high wait times for basic care and for specialized care. While private healthcare is officially banned by Canadian Law, certain provinces are growing tired of the current state of Canadian healthcare and have invented ways to get around this law to provide private services to those who can afford it, so that they can receive care faster than others. This presents a problem and also identifies the need for possible changes to our current system so that provinces do not have to try and cheat the system.

State of Healthcare in Canada

Healthcare is a hotly debated topic in every Canadian election, and it comes up a lot nowadays, when it seems we hold elections every four months! Not too long ago (in 2000), the World Health Organization (WHO) ranked Canada's Healthcare System as 30th in the world. Now, before you say that is not all that bad, consider this: France spends about the same amount of money on its healthcare system and it ranked 1st overall in those very rankings! Also, the United Kingdom ranked in the top 10, and they spend far less on their healthcare as compared to Canada. This leads to a very obvious question: Why do we rank so low, when we spend so much money on our healthcare system?

A more recent ranking, comparing Canadian healthcare system to those in Europe, still shows us below most other European countries (see picture).