Incoming President of the Canadian Medical Association Says "System is Imploding"

The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association had a few strong words regarding Canada's single-payer system. saying, among other things, that "[w]e all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize."

From a Canadian Press article by Jennifer Graham (h/t Instapundit): "The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country's health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it.

"Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country - who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting - recognize that changes must be made.

"'We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize,' Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"'We know that there must be change,' she said. 'We're all running flat out, we're all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands.'

"The pitch for change at the conference is to start with a presentation from Dr. Robert Ouellet, the current president of the CMA, who has said there's a critical need to make Canada's health-care system patient-centred. He will present details from his fact-finding trip to Europe in January, where he met with health groups in England, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands and France.

"His thoughts on the issue are already clear. Ouellet has been saying since his return that 'a health-care revolution has passed us by,' that it's possible to make wait lists disappear while maintaining universal coverage and 'that competition should be welcomed, not feared.'

"In other words, Ouellet believes there could be a role for private health-care delivery within the public system."

I mentioned this in my previous post, but about Obama's floating of the no-public-option balloon, but I feel this story should have it own post. Time and again, we have all heard the we-should-go-be-like-Canada line. Michael Moore professed such a view in "Sicko," and various bloggers, commenters, political pundits, and such will bring blithely bring up Canada's single-payer system as an example to follow.

Do not be misled. After its inception in and around 1962, Canada's system has slowly collapsed, and is notorious for its long waits in a country that only has a population of somewhere near 34 million. The US has a population of slightly less than 306 million people (not counting illegal immigrants and visitors on student visas, or seeking amnesty etc.), 9 times as many people.

Canada's system is, predictably, following Britain's single-payer economic model, starting off amid high hopes, and then crashing as it attempts to control prices and lives off other countries' medical innovations. A single-payer system is not self-sustaining-- and it is not sustainable.

We'll see if the MSM picks up on this story, especially considering its inconvenient timing. I'm betting it will not.