From: gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada,can.politics
Subject: Nothing is free ... (Was: Ontario "socialism")
Date: 1 Oct 92 00:34:08 GMT
Reply-To: gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare)
Organization: The Bates Motel

jmorriso@ee.ubc.ca (John Paul Morrison) writes:
>
>BTW: user fees for medicare make a lot of objective, economic sense.
>Economic studies clearly show that a *small* up front fee for services
>substantially cuts use of a system. As long as a user fee stays as a
>small inconvenience, it will deter people from using the system.
>The intent is to stop people with the sniffles going to the doctor
>every time. The intent is not to deprive people of service they need.
>A service fee reminds people: this service is serious, and non-trivial,
>and shouldn't be used to indulge hypochondria etc. Use it if you need it;
>but don't abuse it, since this will hurt things for other people in the
>long run.

Yep, I'll agree with that, and so did Quebec Health Minister Marc-Yvan
Cote' when their Liberals stood behind such a plan -- which was nixed
by federal Health Minister Benoit Bouchard, but believe me it'll come
back.  If you don't mind, I'll repeat one of my points from a couple
of weeks ago about REAL problems we have with our system (not the bull$
that American propagandists tell each other down here; one lie to cover
another lie, 'cos if Americans realized that our system was only health
insurance, a lot of people will get VERY angry when they find out ...):


"4. Token user deductibles of $5-$20 as proposed by Quebec last spring
so that folks would go to the pharmacy for a box of bandages (24 for
$3.00) rather than go to the doctor.  These would double as a reminder
to the patient that the doctor is a fee-paid professional and not some
servant at their beck and call ... again, because too many people have
been convinced that it's free due to Canadian left-populist ideology
or just because they can't add.


On the flip side, since all our doctors are private they should be
pushed to being more entrepreneurial and take out loans for more high
technology rather than go sailing for six weeks ...  the practice of
medicine itself is more conservative by nature in Canada, but I'm not
a doctor and they'll have to move ahead on their own volition ..."

gld

PS: When extra-billing was a common practice in Ontario, the extra
amounts were in the $5-$20 range (to get at $20, you need some major
brain job or something) ... these were de facto deductibles.  Here in
the U.S., some of my Columbia University health insurance plan's
deductibles barely match my *in-province* rate from Manitoba Health
Services Commission.  (I had once filed a claim back home to cover a
deductible after my coverage was tallied, and lost C$10 when the final
accounting was done; -- pretty minor, considering the health insurance
gaps some American people have to cover down here, usually in the few
hundreds of dollars -- then, they come away exclaiming how LUCKY they
are that it wasn't a few or tens of thousands.)

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Je me souviens ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gary L. Dare				
> gld@cunixB.cc.columbia.EDU		Oct 26/92: Just say "OUI!"
> gld@cunixc.BITNET			(Let's worry about the economy!)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada,can.politics,can.general