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Dear John,
Canadians were already dealing with a record-long medical wait-times before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, which only made things worse.
And recent estimates suggest that over half a million Canadians were still waiting for treatment... at the beginning of 2023!
A new study published by the Fraser Institute today finds that Canada can tackle growing backlog of surgeries with funding reforms and expanded role for private-care providers within our public system.
Other countries – which also have universal health-care – have adopted a number of policy reforms in order to significantly improve access to care for their populations:
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Allowing private care providers a more active role in delivering care within the public system, thereby increasing available capacity to help clear surgical backlogs;
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Publishing information on wait times and quality, and allowing patients to compare and choose care providers accordingly; and
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Shifting away from fixed health budgets for hospitals. By making patients no longer a source of expenses in a fixed budget but rather a source of additional revenue, patient-based funding schemes encourage providers to deliver quality services in order to attract more patients.
Dig further into the numbers here, and please help us spread this news on social media!
Sincerely,
Niels Veldhuis
President
The Fraser Institute
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