In reversal, Canada dabbles with health care privatization

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Canada, once considered the bedrock of national health care systems, is in the beginning stages of change toward free-market health insurance.

But in a country where free health care is an afterthought, change comes slowly.

For the first time, private health care clinics are proliferating throughout Canada and arguments forallowing private physicians to practice freely are being heard.

"You are seeing the Medicare orthodoxy of the last 30 years being questioned in Canada," said Dr. David Gratzer, a registered physician in Canada and the U.S., and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a nonprofit public-policy think tank. "Over the last two years, the health care system has dramatically changed to allow more private health care."

The Supreme Court of Canada, widely viewed as among the most liberal in the world, nearly two years ago allowed a man in Quebec to buy health care on his own — striking down 30 years of precedent and giving advocates for private health care a major victory.

The case is known as the Chaoulli decision, after Dr. Jacques Chaoulli, who took action against the system after a patient was forced to wait nearly one year for a hip replacement.

Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and Justice John Major wrote in the decision: "The evidence in this case shows that delays in the public health care system are widespread, and that, in some serious cases, patients die as a result of waiting lists for public health care."

But the high court's decision is only a springboard for change — a major privatization wave won't occur until each of the 10 provincial governments and three territories moves to align its legislation with the Chaoulli decision and insurance companies step into the arena with new products, said Dr. Zoltan Nagy, executive vice president of the Canadian Independent Medical Clinics Association.

South of the border

In the United States, the buzz for a national health care system isat a fever pitch as Democraticpresidential contenders talk about implementing some form of a universal health care program, and Michael Moore's new documentary, "Sicko," shines the spotlight on inefficiencies in the U.S. health care model by comparing it with, among others, Canada's.