Monday, August 15, 2022
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

User fees would improve efficiency and equity in Canada’s overburdened health care system

Burdened by overconsumption and waitlists, the health care system can preserve equal access while improving efficiency by re-introducing user fees.

July 21, 2022
in Domestic Policy Program, In the Media, Latest News, Releases
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A

OTTAWA, ON (July 21, 2022): After user fees were abandoned in 1984, Canadians failed to see an improvement in the delivery of their health care services. The reality is that without costs on users, overconsumption in health care proliferates. This has led to a rationing of the amount and quality of care that Canadians receive.

In this new MLI paper titled Equity and efficiency vs. overconsumption and waste: The case for user fees in Canada, Senior Fellow Dr. Shawn Whatley argues for the reintroduction of user fees in Canada’s health care system, revealing that far from being in conflict with universality, they ensure equal access and improve the overall efficiency of our health care system.

According to Dr. Whatley, “at some point Canada will have to admit that rationing care is a necessary part of all health insurance. Either rationing is up front, where patients get a say, or it is hidden, and patients suffer the decisions that others make on their behalf.

“User fees give patients the opportunity to decide whether they can go without service, instead of leaving the decision to a panel of experts who know nothing about a patient’s symptoms.”

Dr. Whatley makes the case that user fees discourage patients who want low-impact care from clogging up waiting rooms, leaving more capacity for patients with more urgent needs. User fees also promote the common good by providing necessary funding for the health care system in an equitable fashion.

Additionally, our current system invites “moral hazard” – the concept whereby people act more carelessly with respect to their health in the knowledge that the system will cover their expenses. Dr. Whatley argues that this drives up health care demand without improving supply. User fees help solve this by imposing costs that help improve the system’s efficiency and equity.

Though opponents of user fees warn that the policy risks vulnerable people, Dr. Whatley finds this argument unpersuasive. A properly designed policy can make exceptions for those unable to pay the fees. Indeed, although user fee exemptions for the sick, old, and poor solve equity-related concerns, the present “one-size-fits-all” approach has done nothing to improve things.

Studies and examples from around the world demonstrate that equity and universality can be maintained and health outcomes improved with user fees. Randomized trials have shown that cost-sharing decreases patient demand without harming patients’ health outcomes, a win-win for any overburdened health care system.

With the cost of maintaining the status quo increasingly untenable, “it seems time for our federal and provincial leaders to strike a task force to examine how user fees might fit into the context of Canadian medicare,” writes Dr. Whatley.

“Patient co-payment should be explored as one way to protect and expand the services Canadians need and have come to expect.”

To read the full paper, click on the button below.

***

Shawn Whatley is a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and author of the recent book ‘When Politics Comes Before Patients—Why and How Canadian Medicare is Failing’.

For more information, media are invited to contact:

Skander Belouizdad
Communications Officer
613-482-8327 ext. 111
skander.belouizdad@macdonaldlaurier.ca 

Tags: HealthhealthcareShawn Whatley
Previous Post

Pod Bless Canada EP. 78 – From Impossible War to Improbable Peace with Devlen and Muzergues

Next Post

Equity and efficiency vs. overconsumption and waste: The case for user fees in Canada

Related Posts

Five reasons you should care about Ukraine: Jakub Ferencik for Inside Policy
Europe and Russia

It is Amnesty International and Russia, not Ukraine, that are putting civilian lives at risk: Sarah Teich and Shuvaloy Majumdar in the National Post

August 12, 2022
St-Laurent and the Revitalization of Rural Canada: Ken Coates for Inside Policy
Domestic Policy Program

The resurgence of rural Canada: Philip Cross in the Financial Post

August 12, 2022
Facebook isn’t going to save you, newspapers: Peter Menzies in the Line
Columns

Facebook isn’t going to save you, newspapers: Peter Menzies in the Line

August 11, 2022
Next Post
User fees would improve efficiency and equity in Canada’s overburdened health care system

Equity and efficiency vs. overconsumption and waste: The case for user fees in Canada

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Follow us on

Newsletter Signup

First Name
Last Name
Email Address

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

Inside Policy Magazine

  • Current Issue
  • Back Issues
  • Advertising
  • Inside Policy Blog
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

IDEAS CHANGE THE WORLD!Have the latest Canadian thought leadership delivered straight to your inbox.
First Name
Last Name
Email address

No thanks, I’m not interested.

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Privacy Preference Center

Consent Management

Necessary

Advertising

Analytics

Other