The CMA's Plan for Medicare Plus: What does the Evidence Say?

A constitutional challenge to Ontario health care legislation prohibiting the purchase of private health insurance for medically-necessary healthcare services (dubbed the "Ontario Chaoulli) was announced on September 5th, 2007. It's another call for increased privatization, based on the misinformed notion that an expanded role for private health insurance will remedy wait times in Canada.
Just last month, the outgoing President of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), Dr. Colin McMillan, put forward Medicare Plus, the CMA's solution for sustaining our health care system. It proposed expanding the role for private insurance and private payment, and allowing physicians to work for the public system and treat private patients too. After facing a stream of backlash in response to their Medicare Plus report from the Canadian Healthcare Association, the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, Canadian Doctors for Medicare and others, the CMA responded by saying that Medicare Plus should not be read as an endorsement for a two-tier health system, but that it is time to examine the nature of the public versus private health care debate. Indeed it is. Will their recommendations make Medicare better? The evidence says no.
http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/35154.html accessed today.

The comment does nothing to advance the discussion. Please see:

Though admittedly the Canadian system is underfunded, and extended waits
for some elective services may be a problem in some parts of the country,
these problems are often exaggerated by its detractors based on unreliable
self-reported data. In 1998, fewer than 1 percent of Canadians were on waiting
lists, with fewer than 10 percent of these waiting longer than four months
(19). Waiting times in the United States, even for the privately insured, are

now increasing for checkups as well as for sick visits (20).
...

Comprehensive and reliable provincial databases on waiting times show that
in recent years, waiting times have decreased while services have increased.
For example, coronary bypass surgery increased by 66 percent between
1991 and 1997 in Manitoba, while waiting times were reduced for that
procedure and also shortened for five other elective procedures—carotid
endarterectomy, cholecystectomy, hernia repair, tonsillectomy, and transurethral
resection of the prostate (21).
• Although there is a widespread myth that many Canadians seek medical
care in the United States, a three-state study reported in 2002 found that
this number is very low for either outpatient or hospital care, and largely
due to these Canadians needing medical care while traveling in the United

States (22).
Source: http://pnhp.org/facts/myths_memes.pdf accessed today.

See also:

Blendon, R. J., et al. Inequities in health care: A five-country survey.

Health Aff.

(Millwood) 21(3): 182–191, 2002.

16. Dirnfeld, V. The benefits of privatization. CMAJ 155(4): 407–410, 1996.
17. Weber, T., and Ornstein, C. County USC doctors say delays fatal. Los Angeles Times,
April 23, 2003.
18. Derlet, R. W. Trends in the use and capacity of California’s emergency departments,
1990–1999. Ann. Emerg. Med. 39: 430, 2002.
19. Tuohy, C., et al. How Does Private Finance Affect Public Health Care Systems?
Marshalling the Evidence from OECD Systems. Canadian Health Economics
Research Association, Toronto, May 2001.
20. Center for Studying Health System Change. Press release. Washington, D.C.,
September 5, 2002.
21. Rachlis, M., et al. Revitalizing Medicare: Shared Problems, Public Solutions, p. 25.
Tommy Douglas Research Institute, Vancouver, January 2001.
22. Katz, S. J., et al. Phantoms in the snow: Canadians’ use of health care services in
the United States. Health Aff. (Millwood) 21(3): 35–41, 2002.
23. Canadian Health Services Research Foundation. A Parallel Private System Would

Reduce Waiting Times in the Public System. Mythbusters Series No. 2. Toronto, 2001.

The discrepancies are:
LE Male Birth Canada 78 US 75 Advantage Canada
LE Female Birth Canada 83 US 80 Advantage Canada
Infant Mortality Canada 5.0 US 7 Advantage Canada

Somehow I think the US needs to learn some lessons about addresssing health disparities from our neighbors to the north. Making undocumented/unsourced derogatory claims about another countries health system absent referenced data and sources indicates an unwillingness to learn and inquire with an open mind.