Medicare
CMAJ 2000;162:1125
See response from: J. Hoey
The statement in your editorial in the Feb. 8, 2000, issue that "private health care is always more expensive"1 mixes opinion with fact. The reference you gave [editor's preface]2 provides no statistically valid data to support such a statement. In British Columbia, private surgical clinics offered to provide contract surgical services for medicare patients at 60% of the government-calculated cost in public hospitals. We did not need a study, or a health policy analyst, or a health economist or any other redundant bureaucrat to back up our calculation that we could achieve this and still make a (nasty word) profit. Why CMAJ's editors continue to blindly trust the ability of a state-controlled monopoly to deliver efficient, effective and excellent health care services is mind-boggling to many of us.
The bottom line is very simple. There is nothing morally wrong with spending one's own money on the health of oneself or a loved one. The hogwash being spouted by self-serving lobbyists and unions is being matched by the editors of CMAJ.
Brian Day
Orthopedic surgeon
Vancouver, BC
bday@telus.net
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Reference
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Klein's surgical strike at medicare [editorial]. CMAJ 2000;162(3):309.
Rough seas in US managed care [editor's preface]. CMAJ 1999;161(6):669.
© 2000 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors
