Ottawa Citizen: Insurance/Health Care - Borrow European ideas for competition in health-care, doctors' association head says - by Joanne Laucius

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Insurance/Health Care - Borrow European ideas for competition in health-care, doctors' association head says - by Joanne Laucius

European ideas about funding patients rather than hospitals could translate into better medical care for Canadians, says the president of the Canadian Medical Association. In a meeting with the Citizen’s editorial board, Dr. Robert Ouellet said the goal should be to dramatically transform a health care system troubled with long wait times and doctor shortages, not reform it. In Europe, people “were surprised by the wait times we have in Canada,” said Ouellet, who recently traveled to the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark and met with 36 groups from government organizations to doctor and patient groups to examine how European systems offer universal health care with minimal wait times.

In the Netherlands, either private or government insurance is compulsory, but private insurance is provided by six competing insurance companies, he said. The Dutch government pays the premiums for children up to the age of 18 and provides health-care allowances for low-income residents if premiums exceed five per cent of household income. Drugs are considered part of the treatment and are covered by the system.