Health Care Reform Do's and Don'ts

By Dr. Keith Martin, MD

 

Don’t:

·         Allow people to pay to jump ahead of the queue in the public system

·         Allow people to divert taxes to private services. Everyone will pay taxes and ALL will have access to the public system. This is akin to our education system that has private and public schools. People who pay tuition for their children to attend private schools still pay taxes that pay for public schools.

 

 

Do:

·         Look at 17 of the 20 top health care systems that are all in Europe. All provide for better access to quality care when people fall ill at a lower cost (Canada ranks 22nd in the world, the US is 26th).

·         Allow people to pay for health care services in completely separate private clinics. ONLY private monies would pay for these clinics and services.

·         Enforce common standards for public and private health services.

·         Develop a medical manpower strategy.

·         Allow physicians to provide essential services in the private sector if they spend a minimum of 50% of their time working for the public system.

·         Allow hospitals to be paid on the basis of patient services rendered as opposed to receiving block funding alone.

·         Implement a National Head Start Program for Children. This is a powerful preventative program.

  •    Implement E-technologies to improve the flow of medical information e.g. E-Health records.