The direct costs of Canada's national health insurance are not as troublesome as the distortive effect they have on health care delivery. Health care facilities have been forced to cut back severely on their capital expenditures, thus depleting the availability of advanced medical equipment. As a result, many patients must seek advanced treatment elsewhere. According to a recent study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, nearly one-third of Canada's doctors have sent patients outside the country for treatment during the past five years. About 10% of all British Columbia residents requiring cancer therapy have been sent to the U.S. In Toronto, because the government doesn't provide enough money for personnel, 3,000 beds have been removed from service, while thousands of patients are on waiting lists for admission.
Even where advanced equipment is available, bureaucratic absurdities prevent proper use. According to the April issue of "Fraser Forum," dogs at York Central Hospital in metropolitan Toronto were able to get CAT scans immediately while humans were put on a waiting list. The reason? Canadian patients are not allowed to pay for CAT scans, and the procedure costs too much to operate more than a few hours a day for nonpaying customers. Dog owners, on the other hand, were permitted to pay to use it. The user fees paid by the dog owners allowed the machine to operate longer, thus more human patients could be scanned. When this information was released, instead of considering user fees for humans, the Canadian government banned the tests for dogs!
Review of attacks on health care facilities in six conflicts of the past three decades