Canada Supreme Court: Prohibitions on Private Insurance are Invalid

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled today that prohibitions on private insurance are invalid since the public system has failed to deliver medical in a timely, reliable way and that Government bans on private health insurance have increased the risk to the life and health of Canadians:

The Court majority agreed with a challenge from a Quebec patient and doctor who argued that prohibiting private health insurance jeopardizes the well-being of people who desperately need treatment.

The ruling struck down Quebec laws that guarantee a virtual monopoly on medical services for the public health system, and it placed other, similar schemes in great doubt.

It looks like Canadians will finally have choice in their healthcare choices.

Viva La Free Market!

The evidence in this case shows that delays in the public health-care system are widespread, and that, in some serious cases, patients die as a result of waiting lists for public health care,” Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote on behalf of Mr. Justice Jack Major and Mr. Justice Michel Bastarache.

”The evidence also demonstrates that the prohibition against private health insurance and its consequence of denying people vital health care result in physical and psychological suffering that meets a threshold test of seriousness.”

Chief Justice McLachlin said that experience of several other western democracies with public health-care systems is that allowing limited private care can provide benefits to the public.

Yes, a private healthcare system with vouchers for the truely indigent and disabled is the far better system than a socialized state controlled system.

The delays in the Canadian system are well known and the displacements widely documented.

This global track record ”refutes the government’s theory that a prohibition on private health insurance is connected to maintaining quality public health care,” she said.

Madam Justice Marie Deschamps – whose concurring reasons gave Chief Justice McLachlin the majority she needed – said: ”The evidence shows that, in the case of certain surgical procedures, the delays that are the necessary result of waiting lists increase the patient’s risk of mortality or the risk that his or her injuries will become irreparable.

Exactly, and Flap will post links to the written opinions as they become available.

Update #1

The New York Times has the story: Canadian Court Chips Away at National Health Care:

The Canadian Supreme Court struck down a Quebec law banning private medical insurance today, dealing an acute blow to the publicly financed national health care system.

The court stopped short of striking down the constitutionality of the country’s vaunted nationwide coverage, but legal experts said the ruling would open the door to a wave of lawsuits challenging the health care system in other provinces.

The system, providing Canadians with free doctor’s services that are paid for by taxes, has generally been supported by the public, and is broadly identified with the Canadian national character.

But in recent years, patients have been forced to wait longer for diagnostic tests and elective surgery, while the wealthy and well connected either seek care in the United States or use influence to jump ahead on waiting lists.

The court ruled that the waiting lists had become so long that they violated patients’ “liberty, safety and security” under the Quebec charter, which covers about one-quarter of Canada’s population.

Healthcare is only looking up for the many Canadians stuck in the back of the healthcare line.

Small Dead Animals has some good comments on Canadian Healthcare.

Outside the Beltway has their take here.