Evaluating Claims About The System
Evaluating the accuracy of claims about the system is hampered by several factors. The highly decentralized nature of health care delivery means that good data is not always available. It is often difficult to distinguish compelling but atypical anecdotes from systemic problems. Considerable effort is being made to develop and implement comparable indicators to allow better assessment of progress. However, the Health Council of Canada — with a mandate to monitor and report on health reform — complained in 2007 that progress has stalled.
The debate about health care has also become heavily ideological. The Fraser Institute, a think tank supporting "competitive market solutions for public policy problems" is a frequent critic of medicare. It publishes yearly reports about wait times which are then used to argue that the system is both failing and unsustainable. Others criticize their methodology, which is based on physician perceptions rather than actual waits. Other complaints come from the political left, who object to 'privatization' (by which they usually mean a heavier involvement of for-profit providers). (See, for example, the Canadian Health Coalition web page. There are frequent debates in the media and on line between advocates and opponents of Canadian healthcare.
Read more about this topic: Medicare (Canada)
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