A recent report suggested that 63 percent of X-ray equipment is out of date, as is a majority of all diagnostic machinery. A third of the radiological equipment in the city of Victoria, for example, is more than two decades old. When a hospital there tried to give one of its ultrasound machines to a local veterinarian, he declined because he already had better equipment. This February, fewer than 1 in 4 gave the system those top marks. The Harvard School of Public Health asked specialists in five countries whether the quality of care had declined in their country.
Government already has enormous control.
No province is allowed to charge user fees, and private insurance has been effectively outlawed. As a result of government price controls on pharmaceuticals, research is minimal. Health reformers seem to divide into two schools - one maintaining that the problems would disappear with better management, the other saying the answer is more money. What both schools of thought have in common is the belief that salvaging the system requires more government. Canadian politicians, presented with two bad options, have been following both approaches for the better part of the past three decades.