Rethinking Socialized Medicine In Canada

IBD Editorials ^ | July 21, 2010 | DAVID GRATZER

[Kaslin]

As Washington prepares to implement the White House's health care reforms, no one is talking much about Regina, Saskatchewan, these days. Maybe that's not surprising: With so much work falling on state governments, the news cycle focuses on Albany, Indianapolis and Sacramento, not some small city in the middle of the Canadian prairie.

But while Americans may not know Regina, Canadians know it well. Regina (ridge-EYE'-nuh) is the birthplace of Canada's socialized health care system. It was there that Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas first proposed a government-run health care system back in the 1950s. And it was there that, in 1962, the government bill passed in the province's Legislative Assembly.

That was then. Today, Regina's health care model is becoming more market-friendly. The dramatic changes occurring there — the very first city in North America to experience government-run health care — and throughout Canada are worth contemplating as the U.S. prepares an unprecedented expansion of the federal government into private health care.

For example, Regina's health board (charged with providing health service to the city's population) recently started entertaining the idea of contracting out CT scans to the private sector. And with good reason: Regina has just three CT scanners, and they are running at full capacity, seven days a week. The reach-out to the private sector, then, is about practicality, not ideology — patients are simply waiting too long.

Regina isn't the only place in Canada where health care officials are contemplating private reforms

[jim35]

Coming soon to an ER near you: 4 day waits. What could possibly go wrong?