Two Tiered Health Care Stystem

Two-tiered Health Care System

• Two-tier health care is a form of national health care system.

• Guaranteed public health care system exists, but where a private system operates in parallel competition.

• Private system: provides the opportunity for patients to have more choice in choosing their doctors and benefit from generally shorter waiting times, but is known for being quite costly and reserved only for those who can afford it.

• Doctors in the private sector may also benefit financially as they can set their own prices.

• Some advanced countries in the world have two-tier primary health care to varying degrees.

• The proponents of two-tier system argue that it would introduce more flexibility into the system, reducing wait lists and that competition from the private sector would make the public one more efficient.

• Opponents argue that a two-tier system would tend to draw many of the best doctors out of the public system, reducing the overall quality of care.

• Two tier approach with private care would be more expensive than single tier health care.

• Competition from the private sector would also almost certainly drive up the wages of doctors and other medical professionals in the entire system. T

• The concern for many is that by permitting private health care in Canada, the government would be inclined to reduce public health care funding. This could have many (positive and negative) implications.

http://iwarrior.uwaterloo.ca/?module=displaystory&story_id=2969&format=html&edition_id=78

http://www.greenparty.ca/en/node/4373

http://www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/2004-3/issue3/op-health.html