Throwback Article: Debating Healthcare in PEI
It’s my intention to re-publish some of my older articles that I wrote on a different site I called Libertarian Square which focused on PEI issues. I will re-publish articles I feel still bring great insight into issues Islanders are feeling today.
This first article I wish to re-publish, was was written sometime in early 2013 after attending a town hall meeting regarding the government’s decision to remove acute care beds from Western hospitals on the Island.
Considering health care services in the West of PEI are still an issue and town halls are still taking place over ten years later discussing the same problems I thought this was a perfect article to share. In particular I enjoyed a few minutes of laughter at the part when then Health Minister Doug Currie used Twitter to inform the public that the zealous chairperson of a group working to keep these hospitals open had in the past actually worked with the PC government to shut them down! I had completely forgotten this happened and it just goes to show how messed up health politics really is.
Unfortunately it appears the links and footnotes no longer work. Anyway enjoy the article below.
Debating Healthcare in PEI
I’ll be honest, I haven’t been very excited to write this article, I’ve put it off for a long time actually. I usually stick to economics and various sub-fields such as taxation, subsidies, and spending. That’s because people seem to be a lot more open about broad changes in policy in those fields then they do about health care. In fact, health care is usually the most frustrating field to write about and I noticed there is a severe brain drain when researching health care and I think I know the reason. Unless an analyst arrives to the conclusion that more money needs to be spent or more services need to be added to Medicare, then their suggestions will not be considered in drafting policy.
Here in PEI like in other provinces health care is a big debate. Health care expenses keep rising and eating up more of the budget every year. The hot topic currently is the government’s decision to remove acute care beds from rural hospitals and transforming them into extended and long–term care beds. Alberton’s hospital will also see changes as the emergency room will not be available during the evening hours but doctor will be available for consultation on the phonei.
The debate has primarily settled into a rural vs. urban structure as residents of rural PEI feel they are not getting the services they are entitled to. This is the typical structure of the health debate in PEI and the problems here are the same as in the rest of Canada, costs are rising faster than revenues. Therefore the debate is always the same; which ever party is in power is accused of cutting services to rural communities in order to cut costs, while the Opposition will fight against any cuts or restructuring. During this session of the legislature the Opposition PC Party brought up several quotes by Mr. Ghiz during his time in Opposition all of them in support of rural hospitals and against cuts by the former Binn’s PC government. To add even more to this bizarre spectacle, the Health Minister Doug Currie informed the public by Twitter that Natasha Dunn, chairperson of the main lobby group working to keep the Western Hospital open, actually lobbied in the past on behalf of the Binn’s PC government to close down the O’Leary and Alberton hospitalsii. This would have allowed the consolidation of services into a bigger hospital to better serve Western PEI, which is essentially the same argument Minister Currie is making with acute care beds today. PEI politics at its best, major flip-flops all around and hilarity ensues.
Health Care in Canada
When it comes down to it, all the parties have the same view on health care and believe in the same fundamental structure of a universal single payer system provided by the government. The Soviets tried this with their economy as a whole and many free market economists have written about the folly of giving government a monopoly on any good or service. As is easily predicted Medicare is becoming more strained, innovation is stifled, costs are going up, and shortages are occurring. Instead of having people line up in the streets for bread like in the Soviet system, our shortages take the form of longer wait times to see specialists.
We’ve all heard of the growing age of the population at large, to put things in perspective in 2010 there were 2.3 workers per dependent (people aged between 0-14 and 65+). Estimates now show that by 2036 it will only be 1.5 workers per dependent. Considering that in 2008 seniors age 65+ consumed 44% of the health budget while representing only 13.7% of the population, the implications of an older population are cleariii. Medicare will require more and more resources just to keep the same level of care, nobody though is really sure where the money will come from since both the federal government and the provinces have heavy debt loads. The implications are already playing out in PEI as most departments face a freeze in expenditures except in health care, this means other government services must suffer to keep up health care.
Despite all the money being poured in health care and the disproportionate size in growth of the health care department, the situation appears to be getting worse. In 1999 the waiting time from a referral from a GP to treatment from a specialist in PEI was 18.8 weeks, by 2012 that has increased to 29.3 weeksiv, a growth of over 55% and the worst is yet to come. Most advocates for the Medicare system refuse to acknowledge the coming crises in this system, but some modern day liberals are willing to acknowledge the setbacks of a government run health system and offer their solution. I’ll let Mr. Reich, an Obama advisor, explain what some liberal intellectuals are thinking about in order to fix the government system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT7Y0TOBuG4
While I find the idea of letting old people die off and not offer them care reprehensible, at least Mr. Reich is willing to be honest about the steps that need to be taken to preserve government run health care. In Canada the scenario I see playing out is more increased wait times for critical surgeries and patients suffering on waiting lists.
Freedom is Thy Cure
The residents of PEI have recently held a rally at the Provincial Legislature to show their displeasure, but what I see them promoting is a continuation of a failed system. Their complaint is valid enough, rural residents comprise over half the PEI population, yet only 5% of the health budget is spent on rural hospitals. Their solution is simply to increase expenditures to rural hospitals. I would instead argue that rural communities should instead be allowed to keep the money they pay in taxes and decide for themselves how best to provide their own health care. Sadly I don’t see any such view being promoted, all I see is people all too willing to let Mr. Ghiz and his sycophants be in charge of health care. I can’t imagine what kind of humiliating experience it must be to go before the Emperor and beg for scraps.
Looking at this government’s track record on the HST and numerous failed business projects, I would not trust them with running much of anything, let alone something as critical as health care. For numerous reasons I’m in favor of a free market system, anything that will help break the monopoly. A two-tier system, user fees and medical savings accounts should all be on the table. Pretending the government is suddenly going to “get it right” is not going to happen. People must be given the freedom to seek their own improvement in health care, it’s their fundamental right.
i http://www.gov.pe.ca/photos/original/hpei_betteracce.pdf
ii http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/News/Local/2013-04-09/article-3216971/Alberton-woman-demands-health-minister-apologize/1
iii http://www.fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraser-ca/Content/research-news/research/articles/canadas-aging-medicare-burden.pdf
iv http://www.fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraser-ca/Content/research-news/research/publications/waiting-your-turn-2012.pdf