Health system serves politicians, bureaucrats

Re: “Consider byelections a referendum on health management,” commentary, June 2.

I have worked in Canadian health system research and planning for more that 20 years, first in Ottawa, and then in the B.C. Ministry of Health. I retired in 2019.

Yes, I was one of the bureaucrats Mark Roseman rightly criticizes.

First some context.

Before working in the health field, I lived in the U.K. for 12 years, where they have a modestly sized private-payer option. My wife and I used the private option several times when we couldn’t get satisfaction from the public system in terms of wait times.

For instance, I was told I would have to wait six months for the public system to see me about worrying neurological symptoms.

So, I decided to use the private option and pay out-of-pocket about £500 and was seen in about a week. (I had no private insurance.) Hence, I was no longer on the public wait list and I didn’t have to worry anymore.

Although Canada’s health system is fine once you get seen and treated, our “enforced egalitarianism” is hurting the people it is meant to serve in both the quality and quantity of health.

Examples are too numerous to mention. What is so wrong with letting people pay to avoid unacceptable public wait times?

Yes, some of the physicians working in the public system will shift to the private payer, but the government can regulate the extent of this, which will reduce the wait times.

The U.K. is the usual way other developed countries organize their health system. In unbiased comparisons of health systems in developed countries by credible sources, Canada regularly comes next to last, behind the United States.

I find the arrangement of our health system here mystifying, serving the politicians and bureaucrats. And I am a firm believer in health for all.

Bruce Brady Victoria