Overregulated Medicare Stifles Innovation

Renovation nightmares entertain us on TV with stories about incompetent contractors working without a license, permit, or inspection.  It scares us into believing only government regulators can protect us.

Devotion to government regulation pervades Canadian thought.  Our respect for institution and authority makes us believe that bureaucrats and politicians know more about service than industry professionals.  We think regulation and inspection keep us safe.

Long before our overreliance on government, tradesmen, professionals and merchants formed guilds and associations.  They created cutting edge standards to identify the best in their industry.  Standards helped customers identify tradesmen and professionals who operated by a higher set of values.

Members applied to guilds and associations voluntarily.  Membership outlined qualifications and performance.  Loss of membership ruined reputations and income.  Over time, most guilds became bloated and wasteful, out-living their usefulness, but many influential associations survive today.

Canadians live with unreasonable faith in big government to provide and regulate healthcare.  Governments disappoint with cancelled hydro plants and mismanaged air ambulances, yet still we hold faith that big government will meet our healthcare needs.

Guilds have a vested interest in promoting innovation and excellence.  They want progress.

Government appointed regulators have a vested interest in preventing change, maintaining the status quo.  They want to crush outliers.

Guilds push the performance bell curve to the right; regulators keep the bell curve narrow, tall, and fixed.

Government regulators, by their very nature, cannot drive excellence and change.  They exist to limit variability.  They limit progress and adopt change reluctantly, years after everyone else.

Without excellence, average is terrible.  Only a heavy right hand side of the performance bell curve can make average tolerable.

If we want a truly great healthcare system, we need government to step back and provide space for professionals to make it happen.  It’s time for us to break faith with over regulation and make room for innovation and excellence.

(photo credit: blogs.telegraph.co.uk)