Defend Public Healthcare

This is what we have to look forward to if we allow more American-style private insurance of health care: This chart comparing US public Medicare insurance costs with US private insurance costs is taken from the blog for the New York Times by nobel prize winning economist, Paul Krugman. His conclusion: If Medicare costs had risen as fast as private insurance premiums, it would cost around 40 percent more than it does. If private insurers had done as well as Medicare at controlling costs, insurance would be a lot cheaper. It’s a mystery why anyone claims that shifting more people into private insurance is a good idea. Actually, no, it isn’t a mystery; it’s an outrage. Nevertheless, we are bound to hear more from Canadian advocates of  privatization (and the private insurance corporations).  

An interesting blog piece by Jim Stanford concludes that "the higher... the out of pocket fees associated with medical care, the more individuals will cut back care when they are worried about their employment and economic security." Stanford is drawing on a new study entitled “The Economic Crisis and Medical Care Usage” which looked at the impact of the recession in five developed countries: the U.S., the UK, Germany, France, and Canada.  "Canada and the U.K. have the lowest user fees among the five countries surveyed; and in those countries, there was virtually no change under the recession in patterns of care utilization." The U.S., without a universal health care system (and much higher out of pocket fees), fared much worse.  When compared with Canadians, almost five times as many Americans reported reducing their use of routine medical services during the recent recession. dallan@cupe.ca