PROFIT® and for-profit delivery
The promoters of PROFIT® would have you believe that the only way to improve Canada’s health care system is to open it to private, for-profit interests.
Dr. Brian Day, private clinic owner, is leading the charge to have provinces permit for-profit clinics, where patients could pay out-of-pocket for access to doctors, treatments and surgeries. British Columbia and Quebec are already hotbeds for these clinics, which the Harper government continues to allow to operate without penalty.
But there have also been victories. Ontario has said “no” to the Copeman clinic, which would have charged patients an annual fee for access to family doctors. Former Alberta Premier Ralph Klein also abandoned his “Third Way,” which would have paid private clinics to deliver health care services on behalf of the province. Unfortunately, his successor, Premier Ed Stelmach, seems intent on introducing user fees and delisting medically-necessary health services.
Private clinics typically charge 10 to 15 per cent more than the public sector for procedures in order to fund administration costs and shareholder profits. At the same time, these clinics draw doctors and other health care professionals away from the public system, which already faces shortages. The result? Longer wait times in the public system for those who can’t afford to pay high enrolment and annual fees, or inflated surgical costs.
PROFIT® is not the cure for Canada’s health care system, and for-profit clinics will only make the situation worse.
Resources:
For-profit versus not-for-profit delivery of long-term care
Canadian Medical Association Journal | Kimberlyn M. McGrail et al. | January 2, 2007
Want Runaway Health Costs? Encourage Private Surgical Clinics
The Tyee | Colleen Fuller | December 8, 2006
Top ten reasons against two-tier medicine in Canada
The Edmonton Journal | Colleen M. Flood, Terrence Sullivan, Noralou Roos, Steven Lewis & Tom Noseworthy | March 13, 2006
Comparing Public and Private Health Care
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives | Pat Armstrong | February 2006
Quality of care in for-profit and not-for-profit health plans enrolling Medicare beneficiaries
American Journal of Medicine | Eric C. Schneider, Alan M. Zaslavsky & Arnold M. Epstein | December 2005
Monitoring Medicare’s Murder
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives | John Conway | December 2005
Public Remedies, Not Private Payments: Quality Health Care in Alberta (PDF)
Parkland Institute | Tammy Horne & Susan Abells | November 2004
The High Costs of For-Profit Care
Canadian Medical Association Journal | Steffie Woolhandler & David U. Himmelstein | June 8, 2004
Payments for care at private for-profit and private not-for-profit hospitals: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Canadian Medical Association Journal | P.J. Devereaux et al. | June 8, 2004
Myth: For-profit ownership of facilities would lead to a more efficient healthcare system (PDF)
Canadian Health Services Research Foundation | 2004
A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Studies Comparing Mortality Rates of Private For-profit and Private Not-for-profit Hospitals
Canadian Medical Association Journal | P.J. Devereaux et al. | May 28, 2002
For-Profit Health Care: Expensive, Inefficient and Inequitable
Dr. Arnold S. Relman | Presentation to the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology | February 21, 2002
The Association Between For-Profit Hospital Ownership and Increased Medicare Spending
New England Journal of Medicine | Elaine M. Silverman, Jonathan S. Skinner, & Elliott S. Fisher | August 5, 1999 |
