Paying for quicker care good option
When the Saskatchewan government announced that it would allow private MRI clinics to provide scans paid out of pocket by patients, my first thought was that this is the start of two-tier health care in Canada. The wealthy will get better treatment than the rest of us.
This is a privilege that until now was restricted to professional athletes. As a society, we decided long ago that they deserve better treatment than the rest of us as they pursued whatever championship they strive for.
Most of the rest of us (except those on workers’ compensation or SGI injury claims), were confined to work within the system and accept whatever treatment that we get in a manner that may or may not be in time. Why? It was a sacrifice for the greater principle of universal access. You could jump the queue, but you had to go to Alberta or the United States to do that.
With the government’s proposal, those with disposable income now can stay at home and do that by paying for two MRI scans: one for someone on the provincial waiting list and the other for themselves. The goal is shorter waiting lists, but in the end it will be a savings to the province.
Historically, this has been seen as counter to the Canada Health Act. Battles between the federal government and Alberta in the 1990s were fought over issues such as private MRI clinics and operating rooms, which were seen as contrary to the concept of universal access. Since then, the political landscape in Canada has changed as we realized that despite massive cash transfers for health care the problems remained.
I have had friends who became ill overseas. Before returning home, they scheduled and paid for tests that could take months in Saskatchewan. You never know if this saved a life, but it did make immediate treatment and faster recovery possible.
Others have left the country for diagnosis and treatment because they felt the timeline in Canada could be fatal. Last week, the CBC carried a story about Gerd Trubenbach, who flew to South Korea for treatment on an aggressive tumour. He felt that the wait time for treatment in British Columbia would have killed him. Fortunately for him, he had the resources and contacts to get treated overseas.
Defenders of universal access call for more funding for medicare. The idea is that if we can improve medicare enough, these measures would not be needed. It is pointed out there are cities in the United States that have 10 MRI scanners, while Saskatoon only has two. What they forget is those MRI scanners are largely funded and run by private investment.
As for funding it, health care in Saskatchewan takes up to 42 per cent of the provincial budget. How much more do we have to spend to fix the problems? As baby boomers age and live longer, they will require more treatment and that percentage will increase.
I have been thinking about this a lot, mostly in medical waiting rooms. I became sick in November and haven’t been able to beat it. My ailment isn’t life threatening, but does involve a lot of trips to doctors and hospital treatments. It isn’t fun.
I ponder this issue often: would I pay to speed up this process? After months of fighting this issue, the answer is a resounding yes. This isn’t a new thought. I am allowed to upgrade a cast or a hospital room, so why can’t I pay to speed up my treatment or healing? Or as with an MRI, I can get what I need while also paying for someone else?
In a perfect world this wouldn’t be done, but as I walk into hospitals that are struggling to keep up with basic maintenance, I know we don’t have a perfect system. And I am not sure why people have to suffer until it is fixed.
Allowing private MRIs won’t fix the problem of increasing healthcare costs in Saskatchewan, but it puts more decision-making ability in the hands that need it. Our personal health shouldn’t be subject to the greater good because the system in inefficient.
Some will always argue that any change to the health system is a slippery slope. It isn’t. Governments have long balanced private and public services. Even the backbone of our health system consists of thousands of doctors acting as private contractors who run offices and bill the province.
Figuring out a way to extend those services while giving suffering patients flexibility and more control of their own treatment should be the goal of every government.