And we're back
Spring is here. I say this not because of the date on the calendar (though Russians, shivering in the below-zero temperatures, will insist that spring officially started on the 1st) but because of the fact that men are back playing baseball for obscene amounts of money again.
Spring Training's here, folks!
In other news, the future-for better or worse-of medicare in this country arrived in Alberta. I have trouble believing that allowing doctors and nurses to work in both the public and private sectors isn't going to lead to even longer waiting times for people who can't afford to pay for private care. That said, there's no way the current system is going to survive ever increasing costs, regardless of the efficiency problems that crop up everywhere in the media these days.
So I don't really know what to think. I suppose, in the end, it comes down to ends-will people still be able to get essential medical care whether they can pay for it or not? Ralph Klein and co. assure us they will be. I hope they're right.
Spring Training's here, folks!
In other news, the future-for better or worse-of medicare in this country arrived in Alberta. I have trouble believing that allowing doctors and nurses to work in both the public and private sectors isn't going to lead to even longer waiting times for people who can't afford to pay for private care. That said, there's no way the current system is going to survive ever increasing costs, regardless of the efficiency problems that crop up everywhere in the media these days.
So I don't really know what to think. I suppose, in the end, it comes down to ends-will people still be able to get essential medical care whether they can pay for it or not? Ralph Klein and co. assure us they will be. I hope they're right.
posted by Ian Gray | 9:36 p.m.
1 Comments:
I think that there's a lot we could learn from European countries, including Britain, that would help us with health care without going down the two-tier route. I don't have a full understanding of all of Blair's reforms, but among his innovations are:
- have money follow the patient, rather than be distributed in lump sums to hospitals on the understanding that they'll perform procedures. This way, hospitals have an incentive to compete for patients.
- set up specialized centres for different types of care. I gather Alberta is having good success with this model. So, for instance, everyone who needs a joint replaced would go to one of a few centres in a provinces, where joint replacements are all they do, and so they do it well. And if it's a private corporation that runs this centre and not some health ministry bureaucrat, who cares? As long as the fees are the same and access is based on need, does it really matter if it's a private company who owns it? It's the outcome that matters.
- provide patients with lots of information on the health system so they can choose where to go. Track waiting times at hospitals (as opposed to waiting lists - the UK found that if you focus on waiting lists, doctors have an incentive to push through easy cases and leave the few hard ones languishing on the shortened lists); track outcomes; make all this information easily available to patients (say on the internet); let them choose where to go for their care. And since the money follows them, this is getting close to a single-payer free-market type system.
- crucially, SPEND MORE MONEY. Efficiency is important, but in the end, with an aging population, we need to spend more. Blair hasn't been afraid to raise taxes and invest seriously in public infrastructure (i.e., every school in Britain is being rebuilt or repaired). Look what happened to Dalton McGuinty when he raised a health care tax. As long as we expect lower taxes, better health care, and a shrinking labour pool, we'll be disappointed. There needs to be more money available. That can come from a progressive system of taxation, or it can come from whoever is willing to pay privately. But it has to come from somewhere, and no one seems to want to admit that. But if we're not going to make serious public investments, then we're going to have to go the route of two-tier health care, because the Supreme Court was right: it's immoral and unconstitutional to force people into a public medical system and then fail to provide an adequate standard of care.
Post a Comment
<< Home