Letter to the Editor - Private Health Care

It's been a little while since I've written one of these. The Red River Valley Echo is a newspaper that is based in Altona, Manitoba. Recently their editor Greg Vandermeulen wrote an article about health care and how privatization of it would not lead to positive results. I responded back today with the following letter...

Greg Vandermeulen wrote an editorial that was published on Aug 28 about how private health care is not the answer to the various problems we see today in the socialized health care system that we have. Besides the distasteful tactics of calling people names like “simpletons”, he makes a large error in his assessment of what a private health care or even two tiered system would look like.

"The reason private is not better is simple. In any private situation, a profit is needed. "

That would actually make it better! It is simple economics of supply and demand. When a business is for profit they have the incentive to satisfy customers and compete with others in the marketplace. Part of the reason why you can expect to wait 8 hours in a Winnipeg ER before seeing someone is because there is no where else to go, they have a monopoly on ER’s, so the WRHA won't loose a dime if you aren't happy with the services they provide.

"But the truth is, those people will go to the highest bidder, and if the rich start paying for their own care, the quality of care for the poor will go down, not stay the same. "

This is another misunderstanding in the economics of supply and demand. There are different markets out there, some people can afford a brand new expensive car, and some can afford a used affordable car. The health market that serves the "rich" can only sustain so many practitioners as is financially viable; some will cater to high-end client (perhaps a full body massage in the waiting room) and some will cater to mid-range client (cable TV in the waiting room) etc.

"If our tax money was actually directed at doctors, nurses, and other health specialists we would very quickly see an improvement in our health care."

They have been throwing money at this failing health care system for years. If the government is involved then there is inevitably going to be a bureaucracy with high overhead, that's just the way the government functions. It's a systemic problem, the system has to change. Giving people choice in health care will only lead to improvements in the quality of care for the clients and the quality of the workplace for the practitioners.