University Essay: Privatization of Healthcare in Canada Analysis

This essay examines the ongoing debate regarding the privatization of healthcare in Canada, focusing on the arguments for and against a shift towards a private health care system. It begins by outlining the principles of Canada's Medicare system and its historical context, highlighting the current tensions and debates surrounding its future. The essay discusses the drivers behind the demand for privatization, including changing demographics, technological advancements, and the increasing costs of healthcare. It then presents arguments for maintaining a public healthcare system, emphasizing the importance of accessibility and affordability for all Canadians. The essay explores the philosophical and practical factors contributing to the privatization issue, including government investments and the rise of private clinics. It concludes by advocating for a strong public policy that ensures comprehensive medical coverage and addresses the ineffectiveness of government funding. The author references several scholarly articles to support the arguments presented. The essay emphasizes the importance of preserving the public health care system, the role of government and the importance of equal access to healthcare facilities.

PRIVATIZATION OF HEALTHCARE IN CANADA
Privatization of healthcare in Canada
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1PRIVATIIZATION OF HEALTHCARE IN CANADA
The healthcare system of Canada known as Medicare formed in the year 1950s and 1960s
(Allen, 2019). The founding principles of Medicare are universality, comprehensiveness,
accessibility, portability and public administration (Irvine et al., 2013). The Medicare program
was very popular among the Canadian citizens and it also got a lot of international accolades.
However, currently the status of the Medicare has declined. Currently the Canadian healthcare
system is under a lot of tension, there is an on-going debate about whether the healthcare system
in Canada can should be privatized or kept public. The essay will talk about the debate of
privatization of health care, whether Canada should move towards a private health care system or
should the health care stay public.
The Canadian Medical Association is a powerful lobby and an advisory group, their
position on the private versus public debate has a deeper implication, it will affect the job market
by changing the remuneration model for the physicians and various other healthcare
professionals (Forbes, & Tsang, 2019). The growing demand for privatization of the medical
system is because of the increasing demands of the public system as result of the changing
demographics along with the increase in the availability of the brand new technologies. Another
reason for the increase in the demands of the private healthcare is the advances that have been
made in the department of genetics research and personalized medicine. Although these
treatments are beneficial for the public but they are very cost-effective and it is not possible for
everyone to afford it. The question that lies is here if the public system fails to address these
changes, then most definitely the private sector would crawl in. Keeping all the benefits of the
private health care system, the thing that has to be kept in mind is that everyone should equally
be able to afford all the medical facilities and medicine is a basic need of the people, it cannot be
made specifically for few. 93% to 98% of Canadians are in support of the five principles of the

2PRIVATIIZATION OF HEALTHCARE IN CANADA
Canada Health Act, (12), which confirms the proposition that every Canadian should be able
afford health care irrespective of their socio-economic background.
This suggests that the private health care is costly and cannot be afforded by everyone so
the public system should be supported and kept. The Canadian government should take the first
step and try and save the healthcare system in Canada. For saving the healthcare system, the
government needs to pour in some money so that they can keep up with the innovations that the
private sector makes (Herrera et al., 2014). Reports show that the present financial climate of the
country allows the country to take in such responsibility. The Canadians should also realize that
all medical procedures cannot be covered by the public sector, they also need spend some money
in order to receive some care, and maximum of the cost is covered by the government. This
cultural shift will go a long way in preserving the public health care in Canada.
The issue of privatization of the health care system in Canada has been going on for a
very long time. Previously, a lot of Canadians believed that the health care system should be
made private, but these people were less in number. However, this proposition have not been
supported by any political party, hence this idea is still an idea and has not been implemented
now. Although currently the Canadians are rooting for a public health care system but the
country has always have had a system which was both public and private (Dufresne, Jeram,
Pelletier, 2014). The system has been a hybrid of both public and private. There are three factors
that have contributed to make privatization a prominent issue. The first factor is the
philosophical basis of the health care system which was mentioned earlier. These philosophies
have eroded over the period of time because of the changes that have occurred over the period of
time. The basic requirement of this act was the physicians and the hospitals all remain under the
public system, but because of the changes in the health care system such as the less amount of

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focus given to the physicians and the hospitals and more focus on the cost of the drugs and
community care, because of this shift in focus, lessor amount of services fall under the Medicare.
The second factor is that, the government has recently invested a lot of money in the health care
facilities but this investment is yet to bring stability in the public health care system (Chechulin,
2014). This means that although the government is investing a lot of money on healthcare but it
is bringing about any change in the healthcare system (Morga et al., 2015). The third factor is
that there are various new forms of privatization that are being developed. Some of the new
legislations have led to the new forms of privatization. Many new private clinics have popped up
in Canada, where a lot of the people from the financially well-off family go on a regular basis.
These new clinics have completely eroded the principles of the Medicare philosophies. These
places offer a lot of costly, therapeutic and low risk diagnostic services (Coyte, & McKeever,
2016). Another way to increase the business in the private sector is by making sure that the
uninsured people come and join the private medical system. Although these factors have
contributed to the popularization of the private healthcare system but the majority of the
Canadians still support the public care health care system.
This essay concludes that the Canadians demand a system which will have a strong
policy and will cover all the medical costs. They want a public funded plan which will guarantee
them the proper availability of the medical services. Although few things have contributed to the
growing popularity of the private health care system, the most important of which is the
ineffectiveness of the government to utilize the fund properly. However, despite all efforts the
public still wants a system which will cover all their health system and provide them with a
healthcare system that covers all cost and gives the best of medical facilities.

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References
Allen, D. (2019). Medicare: The Privatization of Healthcare in Canada - Global Research. Global
Research.
Chechulin, Y., Nazerian, A., Rais, S., & Malikov, K. (2014). Predicting patients with high risk of
becoming high-cost healthcare users in Ontario (Canada). Healthcare Policy, 9(3), 68.
Coyte, P. C., & McKeever, P. (2016). Home care in Canada: Passing the buck. Canadian Journal
of Nursing Research Archive, 33(2)
Dufresne, Y., Jeram, S., & Pelletier, A. (2014). The true north strong and free healthcare?
Nationalism and attitudes towards private healthcare options in Canada. Canadian Journal
of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique, 47(3), 569-595.
Forbes, C., & Tsang, E. (2019). Healthcare in Canada: Privatization and How to Contain It |
UBC Medical Journal. Ubcmj.med.ubc.ca.
Herrera, C. A., Rada, G., Kuhn-Barrientos, L., & Barrios, X. (2014). Does ownership matter? An
overview of systematic reviews of the performance of private for-profit, private not-for-
profit and public healthcare providers. PloS one, 9(12), e93456.
Irvine, B., Ferguson, S., Cackett, B., Clarke, E., & Bidgood, E. (2013). Healthcare Systems:
Canada.
Morgan, S. G., Law, M., Daw, J. R., Abraham, L., & Martin, D. (2015). Estimated cost of
universal public coverage of prescription drugs in Canada. CMAJ, 187(7), 491-497.