The debate over the future of Canada’s ailing public Medicare system took the spotlight recently with the election of Vancouver doctor Brian Day as president-elect of the Canadian Medical Association.

His election sparked the predictable outcry from the defenders of the government health-care system and felicitations from those who feel the state-run monopoly is in desperate need of help.

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) said it is now more important than ever for those who believe in the public health care system, to convince the minority that for-profit health care is not an acceptable option in Canada

Most of the 62,000 doctors represented at the conference felt that with Day as their leader, the much promised system overhaul will get a boost.

While much of the debate centered on the hysteria about the death of Medicare two important issues about our health care system that will inevitably force change were not given much attention.

The private delivery of health care and the two-tier system is already well entrenched in the Canadian system.

In British Columbia, where Day runs Canada’s largest for-profit medical surgery clinic - some health authorities already pay private clinics to perform surgeries. The practice is allowed under the Canada Health Act, as long as patients do not pay privately for procedures funded by the public system.

In Quebec, there are at least 90 private clinics, many of them offering diagnostic imaging for detection of tumours and cancer.

Our federal politicians, including NDP’s Jack “medicare champion” Layton, pro-hockey players and even some cons have accessed quicker service and private health care. At last count some 30 per cent of the health care system is private.

Last year, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed with a landmark Quebec decision decreeing people have the right to buy lifesaving care if the public system can’t provide it.
It is abundantly clear that the privatization of Canada’s public health care system is already here, hence all this talk about whether it should happen, is passé.

The other question that is not being addressed with the same vehemence shown the public-for profit debate is how many doctors and nurses are going to stay in the public system should a parallel private program for those who can afford it be legalized.

We are already losing doctors, fed up with the constraints of being government paid to the United States and elsewhere. Some family physicians are already charging fees of up to $100 a year to put a lid on new patients and cut their workloads.

A private for-profit system in Canada, if allowed to compete with the public sector without any reins will be attractive to many doctors and members of the nurses union, who are now opposed to any such move.

There is no doubt in anybody’s mind that Canada’s much-loved universal health care system, is in dire need of treatment.

Most involved in the decision making process and our governments, both past and present, have been tackling the symptoms and not attacking the fundamental issues.

In the meantime, Canadians with the wherewithal are seeking alternatives to treat themselves at places like Dr Day’s clinic, south of the border and across the ocean in Asia, where the thriving trade of medical tourism is attracting millions of dollars.

Spending more money and letting the government fix the system, is not an option anymore.
We need a solution to the Medicare crisis.

That solution should be focused on ensuring Canadians get the care they need in a timely manner under a universal philosophy regardless of whether we get in a for-profit clinic, another province in Canada or another country.