The Debate
Do ballooning healthcare spending, evermore expensive prescription drugs and an increased use of private medicine foreshadow the wholesale reform of Canada’s universal, single-payer system? Or, are the divisive debates, social inequities, and sky-high expenditures associated with the U.S. experience with private medicine a validation of Canada’s universal Medicare system?
To encourage a far-ranging discussion of one of the great policy unknowns facing Canadians – the future of our healthcare system – the 5th semi-annual Munk Debate will debate the resolution:
Pro
America has the best doctors, the best nurses, the best hospitals, the best medical technology, the best medical breakthrough medicines in the world.
Yes, everyone in Canada is covered by a “single payer” – the government. But Canadians wait for practically any procedure or diagnostic test or specialist.
Con
Every single industrialized country on the face of the earth has health insurance for all of its people.
Why can’t we have what all those countries have?
Why would we create the inefficiencies and inequities associated with private funding, rather than simply leverage the efficient public system?