(March 19, 2017)<\/p>\n
By: Jayson Maclean<\/p>\n
How much private influence can we have in Canada\u2019s health care system before the dreaded \u2018two-tier\u2019 label becomes the more appropriate one?
\nIn Ontario, the line has already started to blur, say health care advocates, who see both a public system operating chronically underfunded hospitals and a suite of hybrid \u201cboutique\u201d clinics opening up to serve the needs of those who want more services \u2013 and can pay for it.
\n\u201cPrivate clinics have started to move in as provincial governments have closed down public, not-for-profit health care services,\u201d said Natalie Mehra, Executive Director for the Ontario Health Coalition, to the Sault Online. \u201cPatients don\u2019t stop needing the services,\u201d she said.
\nMehra and her OHC colleagues were in Sault Ste. Marie recently, ahead of an upcoming provincial bi-election, to speak on the need to protect public health care, a cornerstone principle for Canada\u2019s health care system they say is currently under threat. \u201cPrivate sector clinics, in all sectors of health care, have been lobbying for billing patients. Their funding model is to maximize profits,\u201d said Mehra.
\nThe main arguments on both sides are well known. Private clinics say that they don\u2019t represent a challenge to Canada\u2019s publically funded system but an enhancement, augmenting Medicare with personalized services and shorter wait times for tests. Detractors, on the other hand, insist that opening the door to hybrid clinics infringes on the egalitarianism at the heart of the system.
\nA new report by Torstar and the Ryerson School of Journalism looked into Ontario\u2019s growing boutique clinic phenomenon, where sleek urban clinics charge patients thousands of dollars per year for a range of services that promise to go above and beyond what OHIP can offer. Extra testing, personalized health and lifestyle assessments, MRI\u2019s available upon request and blood screening and imaging assessments are all on offer for those willing to pay.
\nAllowing hybrid medical clinics undermines Medicare, says Dr. Danielle Martin, Toronto family physician and founding chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare, to the Toronto Star. \u201c\u2026 it contributes to an ethos that the public system is not delivering the highest quality . . . We need to push back against this myth that having extra testing is harmless. The potential for harm is very great,\u201d says Martin.
\nThe services offered by private clinics can themselves be harmful, too, says Toronto cardiologist Christopher Labos, who states that providing more testing \u2014 often more than is deemed medically necessary \u2013 may give people an extra sense of security, yet research has shown that because all medical procedures come with risks, however small, increasing the number of tests also increases the risk of harm.
\n\u201cMaybe that CT scan isn\u2019t dangerous, although it is exposing you to radiation that you don\u2019t need, but any little abnormal finding is going to lead potentially to biopsies and more procedures,\u201d says Labos. \u201cAnd these biopsies and procedures carry risks. If you do enough unnecessary tests, eventually you will cause a complication from all the overtesting.\u201d
\nOntario Health Minister Eric Hoskins admitted that some of the boutique clinics have billing practices that exist in a \u201clegal grey area\u201d that the ministry is \u201cmonitoring very closely as we accumulate information so that we can fully assess the situation.\u201d
\n\u201cAny deviation from the values and integrity of our Medicare system are concerning, and we will continue working hard to uphold our high standards to build a health-care system we can be proud of for future generations,\u201d Hoskins said.<\/p>\n