For many Canadians, our universal health care system is a source of national pride. But the head of a government-funded health care improvement organization says Canada鈥檚 system barely ranks above that of the U.S. and lags far behind systems in Europe, where taxpayers get more care for their money.
Maureen O鈥橬eil is the president of the Canadian Foundation for Health Improvement, a not-for-profit organization funded by Health Canada to evaluate ways to improve our country鈥檚 health system.
She notes that experts weighing in on a global 鈥渉ealth care tournament鈥� voted to eliminate Canada in the first round. The tournament rankings, published found that, while the U.S. health system is 鈥渁 bit of a mess,鈥� expensive and non-universal, that country excels in medical technology innovation, has few delays, and good outcomes for patients.
Canada, on the other hand, was found to have profound 鈥渁ccess problems,鈥� so that nearly one in five Canadian patients wait four months or more for elective surgery.
Sharing her take on CTV鈥漵 Your Morning, O鈥橬eil is not sure she can agree that the U.S. health system is better than the Canadian system.
鈥淲e actually aren鈥檛 inferior to the Americans,鈥� she said Friday. 鈥淚n fact, if you look at all the comparisons that get made 鈥� by the Commonwealth Fund, by the OECD 鈥� Canada always does almost as badly as the U.S., but usually one or two (rankings) up.鈥�
For example, by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) using survey results compiled by the Commonwealth Fund found that Canadians experienced some of the longest delays to see specialists.
O鈥橬eil agrees with the New York Times鈥� assessment that Canadians wait far too long to see specialists. But she says the other reason countries in Europe typically outperform Canada is because their systems are more integrated, offering many kinds of health services for free.
The NYT tournament noted that Canada and Britain, for example, both spend slightly more than 10 per cent of their GDP on health care, but the British system is able to offer more health care services to its citizens. Brits don鈥檛 need to buy supplementary health insurance the way many Canadians do if they don鈥檛 have health coverage at work.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 cover dentistry, we don鈥檛 cover physiotherapists, we don鈥檛 cover psychologists鈥� We don鈥檛 have a broad enough range of things that we cover,鈥� O鈥橬eil said.
She says Canada has failed to create an actual, integrated health system; instead, we created a payment system. Our medicare system covers the costs of doctors鈥� visits and hospital care, but other things like medications and home nurses get left out.
Lots of possible solutions have been proposed over the years, and 鈥渏ust about everything鈥� has been tried somewhere in Canada, O鈥橬eil says.
She suggests one possible solution would be to make better use of home care and house calls, to keep more people out of hospitals and free up beds and resources for the most complicated cases.
鈥淔or example, if you鈥檝e got lung disease, you can be helped at home much more effectively than at the hospital,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat reduces the likelihood of you racing to the hospital, breathless. And if you鈥檙e not in the hospital, we鈥檙e spending less money on you and can spend more on appropriate care for someone else.鈥�
When it comes to reducing wait times, O鈥橬eil says one solution could be in finding ways of eliminating the need for patients and specialists to meet face-to-face.
鈥淲e could have a system with a bank of specialists on call. A GP (family doctor) could call them and get advice within a day,鈥� she said.
A review of a system in B.C. and Yukon called RACE () found family physicians reported that made to the hotline avoided face-to-face consultation and emergency department visits.
鈥淪o there are solutions out there that can be spread,鈥� she said.
