Single payer means long waits for care

As the debate over healthcare reform rages, more Americans are thinking we should adopt a single-payer healthcare system. Virtually all Democratic national and state elected officials, and Democratic candidates for the 2020 election, are either advocating for a complete government-run plan or an incremental movement toward a government-managed, single-payer system.

We don't have to guess whether it would work well. The Canadian federal government passed the Canadian Health Care Act in 1984. It is a pure single-payer system. Every Canadian is covered by the plan and, in theory, has access to medical care. The provinces administer the plan with funding from federal taxpayers. The government determines what procedures are medically necessary based on data and statistics.

The Fraser Institute, a well-respected think tank in Vancouver, British Columbia, has tracked waiting times for patients to receive healthcare in Canada for the past 20 years. It surveys specialist physicians across 12 specialties throughout Canada. The institute recently released the waiting list data for 2018. Americans interested in single-payer healthcare will find it sobering.

More