PROFIT® and private insurance

If health care is so important, why shouldn’t you be able to pay for better care if you can afford it? That’s the argument that privatization proponents make, falsely claiming that allowing parallel private insurance would unburden the public system.

The truth is, private insurance provides greater health care access and choice for the wealthy, but not for the rest of us. In countries with two-tier systems, only a relatively small percentage of the population holds private health insurance. For the rest, access is limited for a number of reasons: we can’t afford the premiums; we don’t qualify due to pre-existing conditions; we face higher premiums for these conditions; or we find our access limited even with coverage due to high out-of-pocket costs such as deductibles and co-payments.

Health cost data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows that our public health system costs less than $180 per month per Canadian. You would have to pay a private insurer at least three times that in the U.S. to get comparable service.

PROFIT® in the form of private insurance is not the cure for Canadians who want quality health care without having to pay exorbitant premiums or be subjected to the whims of a private insurer.

Resources:

Private Health Insurance: Busting the Myths (PDF)
Medicare works! | 2006

Devil Take the Hindmost? Private Health Insurance and the Rising Costs of American 'Exceptionalism' (PDF)
Centre for Health Services and Policy Research | Robert G. Evans | December 2005

How Does Private Finance Affect Public Health Care Systems? Marshalling the Evidence from OECD Nations (PDF)
University of Toronto | Carolyn Hughes Tuohy, Colleen M. Flood & Mark Stabile | October 2000