Montreal the capital of private care (Canada abandons "universal" "free" health care

MONTREAL - Montreal has become the private health care capital of Canada, offering a wide range of diagnostic, surgical and therapeutic services to those patients willing to pay out of pocket to bypass the public system, an investigation by Montreal's Gazette has found.

A parallel health network for the well-heeled and well-connected has emerged in the city in the past five years amid swelling hospital waiting lists for MRI scans, orthopedic procedures, almost every type of day surgery, and a shortage of family doctors.

Patients from as far away as Vancouver Island are attracted to the city's blossoming private health care network. "The province that's going to lead the change in the Canadian health system is Quebec, because it's the only province that has the autonomy to do it," said Brian Day, a Vancouver orthopedic surgeon and proponent of private health care.

"The federal government and [Prime Minister] Paul Martin will never hit on Quebec in the way that he will hit on Alberta and British Columbia."

A study by The Gazette, along with interviews with doctors and health ministry officials across Canada, show Montreal is clearly more advanced in private medicine than any other city. Among the examples uncovered:

- Ninety doctors -- most of them practising in Montreal -- have opted out of medicare, far more than all the other provinces combined. Many are plastic surgeons who conduct uninsured cosmetic operations, but a growing number are orthopedic surgeons, emergency specialists, ophthalmologists, and general practitioners who bill patients for procedures that are medically necessary and normally covered under medicare.

- Montreal has a dozen private medical-imaging clinics, far more than any other city in the country. Such is the city's reputation that Ontario patients regularly travel to Montreal to pay $800 for a magnetic resonance imaging scan. Ontario, by law, does not permit such clinics.

- Quietly, without fanfare, the Westmount Square Surgical Centre opened in August, charging $2,000 to repair shoulder and knee injuries. Despite no advertising campaign, the centre is doing a brisk business, performing 15 to 20 paid procedures a week. The centre's orthopedic surgeons have not opted out of medicare, and therefore, straddle both the public and private systems.

- Next door, MD Specialists charge patients up to $600 for a colonoscopy and the surgical removal of pre-cancerous polyps.

- Montreal is home to probably the country's only truly private orthopedic hospital, where patients pay up to $12,000 for a hip or knee replacement -- surgery requiring overnight stays and a 10-day convalescence.

The Duval Orthopedic Clinic is a hospital on two sites - in north-end Montreal, where Dr. Nicolas Duval performs the operations at a private plastic-surgery centre, and in Laval, where patients recover in a former nursing home.

Dr. Duval has opted out of medicare and his hospital receives no government funding. In contrast, the Cambie Surgery Centre in Vancouver, where Dr. Day works, carries out partial knee replacements, but the surgeons there still bill medicare.

- Montreal is also home to Canada's first private emergency clinic. Since opening in October, the MD Plus Medical Clinic has tended to nearly 500 paying customers. About 30% of the cases are emergencies -- from patients complaining of chest pain to a woman with flesh-eating disease. © National Post 2005

Before the howling about how grand this whole scenario of "private" health care begins, remember that Alberta tried to allow this EXACT scenario several years ago, and was severely chastized by the LSM and the FedGov.

The feds actually threatened cutting off the little funding they contribute (25%, though the original law guaranteed 505 or more to get the provinces to join in), and King Ralph balked.

The cheeze-eating-surrender-monkey-light treasonous separatist bastards do this, get away with calling it "nationalist progress" (even though it's the Anglos doing this) and it's a GOOD thing?

Oh Canada, my Canada.

What has become of you?

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