A new report released Thursday says that privatization of health care in Ontario won’t reduce wait times but may actually increase them.
A new report released Thursday says that privatization of health care in Ontario won’t reduce wait times but may actually increase them.
The only people who believe that wait times would be worse under a public health care system are people who don’t currently need to access health care under a private health care system. I’m an American who unfortunately needs to see specialists relatively frequently and the wait times are already atrocious.
That’s what drives me nuts about this talking point. As someone with a condition that requires specialists and lands me in the ER a lot, wait times in the US are abysmal. Referrals to specialists often take months or more than a year, and even after getting in it can be several months to schedule an appointment. And ER wait times are absurd, rarely less than 5-6 hours, usually 8-12 or more.
I’m one of the few who even have a primary care physician but I really only see them basically annually to get my blood pressure meds, or for general non-urgent health concerns like, “I’m tired all the time, is it that I’m in my mid thirties, or do I have low testosterone like my dad?” The wait time is usually like 4 months unless I think it’s urgent, then they can usually squeeze me in in the next 3-4 weeks. I don’t normally have to schedule the blood pressure visit but only because they’ll schedule it a year out for me when I’m there.
Anything else, like respiratory infections, covid, flu, strep, etc… urgent care is my only option and unless I get there at 6am when they open it’s usually a 4 hour ordeal.
It’s worse than you think
It’s government funded private care and at least in Ontario there isn’t any oversight or accountability allowed for private centres
I’m in Quebec, it’s 12 to 18 months to see a specialist…
Wildly varies based on your specific health profile, and above all, what kind of specialist.
And the perceived urgency of your medical issue.
Well, if you were a billionaire with private doctors and access to preferred care then you would be way better off than someone in Canada, ergo the American system is better.
That’s the only performance based argument in favor of privatized care that I can think of.
See here the problem is when any kind of healthcare conversation starts in Canada the US always gets brought up as a sledgehammer to shutdown any further discussion. I live in the US and nobody thinks the US system is the solution for anything. But there are dozens of working examples in Europe and Asia that are worth learning from. Canadians need to look beyond this continent.