To heck with the Swiss, Canada’s health care is the best

American proponents of for-profit health care love to talk about Switzerland’s private system, where it seems everyone is blissfully buying private insurance and getting great health care. But does Switzerland’s private health insurance scheme really run like a fine Swiss watch?

The Swiss government guarantees health care for all of its citizens by regulating the private insurance industry; noticeably different from a country like the U.S. where health insurers operate with impunity, resulting in millions of under-insured Americans; many with no health coverage at all.

Not surprisingly, Switzerland’s privatized health care system is one of the most expensive in the world, and the costs keep rising. The Swiss public are on the hook for hefty compulsory insurance premiums, with up-front out-of-pocket expenses like deductibles and co-pays, not to mention stiff penalties for those who fail to pay their premiums. Everybody pays the same insurance rates, rich or poor, young or old, leaving many moderate to low income Swiss, (in spite of state subsidies), submerged by their insurance costs.

Like other countries that lean on private enterprise to deliver health care, the Swiss have discovered that keeping the lid on spiralling costs, risk selection and profitmaking isn’t easy, as private interests become powerful enough to manipulate the system.

While Swiss-style health care, despite its shortcomings, would almost certainly be an improvement over America’s crappy privatized health system, Canadians need only show health cards for access to care. Perhaps the Americans should be talking about Canada’s public Medicare instead.

Dave Volume Coleman, Alta.