Private Cost of Public Queues for Health Care
Suppose you lived in an otherwise free country where you were forced to get medical care from a government-controlled monopoly funded by your taxes. Suppose that country made it almost impossible, by law and regulation, to get medical care outside that monopoly within its borders.
Because the government’s rationing of care would affect your ability to work or otherwise enjoy life, it would impose a private cost upon you greater than the tax burden. That country would be Canada, and the average cost imposed on patients by the government monopoly is $1,289, according to The Fraser Institute.
Interesting post, here are some comments:
1. The Fraser Institute is extremely partisan about the faults of Canadian Medicare. Does not make them wrong, though.
2. The waiting lists can have pain and suffering costs that in a way dwarf the modest $1.2 billion in economic costs. People die or see their illness worsen
while on waiting lists.
3. But in defense of Canada, one could I think flesh out how much an average income Canadian saves in free office visits and primary care and (to some extent) in price controlled drugs.
Of course the Canadian pays taxes for these social goods.
But I would be interested in a comparison of how much taxes a Canadian earning $50,000 pays for free primary care, versus how much an American without employer coverage has to pay in insurance premiums and copays and deductibles for the same level of care.
My guess is that the Canadian is better off for primary care.
There is no need to guess about primary care. There are data. The College of Family Physicians of Canada reported in 2006 that 14-15% of the population had no access to a primary-care physician, and 40% of those had recently sought one (http://tinyurl.com/nds2lqg). Quebec was the worst province, with 24% of residents having no primary-care doc, and Nova Scotia was the best, with only 5% lacking.
I wonder how that $1,289 compares with costs of waiting in the USA. Everything is not instant here.
A very good question, especially in, e.g. Massachusetts, where waiting times for primary care are long. I think waiting times in the U.S. will get longer.
I have in-laws who were born and raised in Nova Scotia and I can tell you they get fantastic care.
In one year, one in-law received bariatric surgery and once she stabilized a new knee which greatly improved the quality of her life and by extension her life span and she did not have to go into debt to do so.
Americans should take note.
Thank you. That is two people in a population of over thirty million. That is why we need statistical samples to examine. I don’t think anyone ever claimed nobody got any medical care in Canada!
If I understand your second paragraph, you seem to suggest that a knee surgery in the U.S. would put her into debt, which it would not if she were on Medicare. Instead, the entire country goes into debt!
The implication is there. Canada has a great health care system.
Even the lefties are not saying that anymore: http://www.vox.com/2014/7/1/5843316/the-case-for-canada.