Why fuss over medical tourism? Can you believe what you hear?
Medical tourism “…will lead to the end of medicare” Doris Grinspun, Executive Director of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, told the Toronto Star.
Dr. Meili of Canadian Doctors for Medicare argues that tourism will steal resources from Canadians. “No one should be able to jump to the front of the queue…”
Minister of Health Eric Hoskins said medical tourism generates around $13 million per year and uses no public money.
That doesn’t matter to Andrea Horwath, NDP leader. She insists that “There’s no way people should be able to pay to get services ahead of everybody else.” (same link as above)
The Ontario Nurses’ Union (ONA) calls for a ban on medical tourism.
Many insist it’s un-Canadian for anyone to be allowed to purchase care in Canada. Even if queue jumping is untrue, medical tourism undermines our delicate system of rationing, oversight and regulation. How could hospitals pursue something so stupid, so heinous?
Why Medical Tourism?
1. Canada has empty operating rooms.
Operating rooms are only open 0800-1600, Monday – Friday. They close in the evening and overnight, all weekend, on stat holidays, and during summer ‘slow-downs’ except for occasional trauma or emergency cases.
Some hospitals don’t even have money to keep ORs open Monday – Friday (OR closed to stay on budget in Orillia).
2. Canada has unemployed physicians and surgeons.
Canada invests 12-15 years of training into surgeons only to leave many unemployed (see CBC News and Globe and Mail).
3. Canadian hospitals cannot fund current needs.
Hospital budgets cannot keep up with demand (More Hospital Downsizing – Toronto Star). Administrators use parking taxes, franchises and fundraising for revenue. They must comply with arbitrated raises in salaries but keep budgets unchanged (so they lay off new hires). They ‘close beds’, cut services and leave renovations undone. Finance committees deny requests for new physicians to help over-worked consultants because new physicians mean more demands on hospital labs, x-ray and beds.
Unused facilities + unemployed surgeons + hospitals in debt = medical tourism
Medical tourism uses otherwise empty operating rooms and surgeons thankful for the chance to work. It helps foreign patients and rescues hospital budgets. Medical tourism seems a prudent solution to desperate times. Even without financial pressures, medical tourism helps patients and provides funds to help more Canadian patients.
No one argues Canadians should wait while tourists purchase care. That’s insane and does not happen.
Passion and Spin
Grinspun, Meili, Horwath and ONA don’t protest worker’s compensation (WSIB) patients paying for services outside of Medicare. They never protest patients paying for medical supplies, drugs, physiotherapy, long-term care, optometry, or any other necessary service.
They just hate patients paying for medical care. They hate it because it changes their fundamental relationship with government.
Government controls healthcare. Medical tourism raises a tiny challenge to the idea that all services should be determined, delivered and controlled by the state.
Unions control hospitals in Ontario. They bask in a >90% unionization rate compared with a 16% rate in the private sector (ONA in 142 hospitals of 145 public hospitals in Ontario) (71% unionization rate in public sector overall). They know tax funded hospitals can’t fail. But privately funded hospitals risk insolvency weakening union leverage. Medical tourism raises a tiny threat to destabilize the hegemony.
Ideology
Even a whiff of medical tourism threatens Medicare ideologues.
What do you think? Are there enough tourists to warrant all the fuss? Even if it could challenge Medicare to change and grow, would that be a bad thing? Why does the left-wing NDP hate medical tourism so much?
photo credit: macedonia-timeless.com
Bravo to you Shawn for another extremely well written, insightful posting.
Many of those who dogmatically champion Medicare and refuse to allow even the slightest modification or improvement to funding would like to have us believe that they do so because they have the utmost interest of patients and the Canadian public in mind.
You comments expose the true reasons behind their often extreme and difficult to understand positions on many of these issues.
It is high time more of us became aware of the real harm that continues to be perpetrated everyday upon many thousands of Canadians due to unreasonable wait times, empty OR rooms and under-employed physicians and surgeons across the country.
I am one physician who is becoming very tired of continuing to have to make excuses to patients and their relatives for why nothing works in our health care system as it should and why they should be the ones who ultimately suffer for it.
Thanks so much for taking time to read and comment, Ken!
I think you speak for many of us who are “…becoming very tired of continuing to have to make excuses to patients and their relatives for why nothing works in our health care system as it should and why they should be the ones who ultimately suffer for it.”
We don’t need a revolution or anything scary and radical. If only a handful of us gently and consistently shared the truth, the system would change. Canadians wouldn’t need to leave the country for care: 41,838 Canadians became medical tourists in 2013.
Thanks again for your comments!
Shawn
The minute an international patient enters the hospital door he is using public dollars. On the surface medical tourism is a no brainer….using idle docs and facilities. I believe this is a slippery slope that leads to the perception of preferential treatment while Canadians are left waiting. We should be upset and lobby government to allow private clinics for Canadians. The govt sits back and, I believe, encourages tourism at our publicly funded hospitals. The in fighting takes the heat away from them….temperatily. The Wynne govt is cutting services, denying care to desperate patients, & not funding those with depilatating health issues. Those Pts then look to other countries and self pay for care. Again
,I believe, this is by some sick design by govt. We graduate physicians knowing they will be unemployed. What strategy is this govt following?
Medical tourism is a Hail Mary by hospitals while govt sits idle and watches . U.S hospitals are actively marketing to international patients to the tune of billions of dollars. If our system was the same then I fully support med. tourism. It’s not and govt puts roadblocks to changing to other successful country models.
Let’s stop this med. tourism and put govt feet to the fire by having to close hospitals suffering financially. Maybe then, they will listen to Doctors and an informed public.
So you guessed it….I’m very upset with the beaurocrates and what they perpetuate.
Very interesting comments, Don!
You do a good job of showing that this issue has more complexity, maybe more than we will every fully know. It’s interesting how scared the far left gets at the slightest hint of challenge to their way of life.
Thanks again for reading and sharing!
Shawn
Nice blog …You are showing the real situation of Medical tourism in facing in Canada.but government can help to increase current condition of medical tourism..
Thanks for sharing your comment! I checked out your website – nice! Cheers.