Oh, Canada, We Stand In Line For Thee
Canada took a step away from its shiny, perfect, model-for-the-U.S health care delivery system yesterday. Surprised? Perhaps Canadian-style health care wasn’t so wonderful after all.
The Supreme Court of Canada struck down the Province of Quebec’s ban on private health insurance, reasoning that the ban violated patient’s human rights as guaranteed in the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. Several other provinces have similar prohibitions that are now at risk.
How can a health system violate human rights? In the ruling, the judges illustrate the problem with the rationing implicit in the Canadian model:
“The evidence shows that, in the case of certain surgical procedures, the delays that are the necessary result of waiting lists increase the patient’s risk of mortality or the risk that his or her injuries will become irreparable. The evidence also shows that many patients on non‑urgent waiting lists are in pain and cannot fully enjoy any real quality of life. The right to life and to personal inviolability is therefore affected by the waiting times.”
and
“… most Quebeckers have no choice but to accept any delays in the public health regime and the consequences this entails.
The evidence in this case shows that delays in the public health care system are widespread, and that, in some serious cases, patients die as a result of waiting lists for public health care. The evidence also demonstrates that the prohibition against private health insurance and its consequence of denying people vital health care result in physical and psychological suffering that meets a threshold test of seriousness.
Where lack of timely health care can result in death, the s. 7 protection of life is engaged; where it can result in serious psychological and physical suffering, the s. 7 protection of security of the person is triggered. In this case, the government has prohibited private health insurance that would permit ordinary Quebeckers to access private health care while failing to deliver health care in a reasonable manner, thereby increasing the risk of complications and death.”
Some of the dissents are interesting as well. It takes tortured logic indeed to ban citizens from spending their own money to ensure their own health.
Still want that Canadian-style system? Senator Clinton? Wait! Come back!
[A story about at least one Canadian going to the US to get life-saving treatment is here.]
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