Private health care in Germany better than Canadian system: Fraser report
Private health care in Germany better than Canadian system: Fraser report
A new study from the Fraser Institute found the German health-care system delivered high-quality service and shorter wait times than its Canadian counterpart, despite costing less.
The study, entitled Health Care Lessons from Germany, is one of a series of studies conducted by the right-wing Canadian public policy think-tank that examined health-care policies in other nations that shared this country’s goal of universal access to medicine. The institute suggested that its findings could provide valuable insights for the health-care debate in Canada.
“Canadian policymakers could learn a lot from the German health-care system and its reliance on the private sector,” study author and institute senior fellow Nadeem Esmail said.
Despite spending substantially less on health care, Germans enjoy shorter wait times for emergency care, primary care, specialist appointments and elective surgery than Canadians, he added.
Five years ago, as an age-adjusted percentage of GDP, Germany’s total health-care expenditures, at 9.8 per cent, were 22 per cent lower than those in Canada at 12.5 per cent. Among the developed countries with universal health care, Germany’s total health-care spending was 1 per cent less than the all-country average, while Canada’s were 26 per cent above the all-country average and among the highest period.
The institute contended its study showed the Canadian system would improve greatly if its provinces followed the German model and allowed more private competition in the financing and delivery of care.
It went on to explain the German system provided universal health care through two insurance premium-funded systems, those being a statutory social health insurance system for all Germans and a second optional system for higher-income and self-employed citizens, through which private insurers compete for subscribers while private providers, such as hospitals, compete for patients all with little involvement by the government save for funding, regulation and oversight.
This system is unlike Canada’s tax-funded government monopoly, the study added.
“The optional private health insurance system in Germany, which shares providers with the social insurance system, has not compromised quality of access in the social health-care system,” Mr. Esmail said.
Dissimilar to the Canadian system, the private sector played a large role in the delivery of German health care services, the study revealed, noting that in 2010, 37 per cent of its hospitals were private, non-profit and one third were private and profitable.
Since the early 1990s, the number of private, profitable hospitals in Germany has jumped around 90 per cent since the privatization of public hospitals, with the study citing other work that suggests private hospitals are more efficient, deliver higher quality care and shorter waits than their public counterparts.
“If Canada wants to mirror the successes of the German health-care system, it could start by enhancing the role of the private sector in the delivery of services as part of a larger transition to a system of independent competitive insurers,” Mr. Esmail said.
“Competition breeds efficiency and innovation, and in Germany, has contributed to shorter health care wait times and a lighter burden on taxpayers.”
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