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Welcome to Health Frontiers
By Dr. Brian Day, President of CIMCA
Welcome to the inaugural issue of Health Frontiers, an independent Canadian healthcare forum covering the latest news and views on healthcare policy, technology and innovation. Health Frontiers is an advocate for health care reform and an industry-information hub on healthcare business practices, technology and innovations.
Why Health Frontiers?
Canadians have been fed the myth that our healthcare system is world class, if not the best the world has to offer. Do the facts bear out the myth? Approximately two million Canadians are on health care wait lists, a 92% increase from 1993. About 65% of children wait a medically unacceptable length of time. And, as the Supreme Court of Canada concluded, "patients suffer and die" due to widespread delays for public health care.
The truth is Canada trails most of the developed world in health care delivery. Some facts about our healthcare system:
- Rated 30th in a World Health Organization survey.
- One of the top three countries in health care costs (Canadian Institute for Health Information).
- Near bottom in access to new technology (OECD).
Canadians expect and deserve better. In the Chaoulli case, the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed a citizen's right to protect their own health and to obtain private health insurance. Canadians are warming up to the idea. Over seven out of ten Canadians support the Supreme Court decision allowing supplementary private health insurance and care (COMPAS poll, January 2006). And over five out of ten Canadians agree with the option to pay privately for faster treatment (Pollara poll, June 2005).
Crossroads
Healthcare in Canada is at a crossroads. Either we maintain a rigidly structured government-run monopoly that treats patients as costs, limits the role of the private sector, stifles innovation, and squeezes more money out of Canadians.
Or, we learn from what the rest of the world has to offer; fashion a unique Canadian healthcare system that maintains universality of access, and builds on the innovations and support of market forces. Health Frontiers envisions a healthcare model that puts patients first.
» Return to Health Frontiers
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 Health Frontiers: Issue 1
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