Healthcare in Canada

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 4-3 today that the Quebec government cannot prevent people from paying for private insurance for health-care procedures covered under medicare.

The majority said the ban on private health insurance violated the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, while the minority said waiting times actually helped to ration scarce resources, given that funds were limited and demand for health care was not.

So we were one vote away from the SC endorsing socialism...scary.

The Liberals and the CBC are in denial, while the Quebec government has asked for a stay; the message is that the ruling doesn't really change anything, we still support the existing system, it applies to Quebec only, etc, etc.

"We're not going to have a two-tier health-care system in this country," [Martin] told reporters following Thursday's ruling. "Nobody wants that."

Except the people who filed the case of course. And the millions of Canadians who have had to wait for urgent procedures. And those that think it is an unneccesary restriction on our freedom as Canadians to pay for services we need.

Other important quotes:

"Access to a waiting list is not access to health care," Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and Justice John Major wrote in the closely watched majority decision. "There is unchallenged evidence that in some serious cases, patients can die as a result of waiting lists for public health are."

"This is endorsing the individual patient's right to access comprehensive health services when the government can't provide them," Dr. Albert Schumacher, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said of the ruling.

The CMA said the court's decision amounted to a "stinging indictment" of the failure of governments to provide timely health care to all Canadians.

More details here. And does it bother anyone else that the Conservative Party is not speaking out more publically on this issue? It's a matter of personal freedom more than anything else.