Greater Privatization of Canada's Healthcare System

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Greater Privatization of  Canada's Healthcare System
A crucial political component is a pressure on governments globally to provide public resources to their citizens at much-reduced costs. With an increase in the aging population, an increase in immigration, globalization of commerce and increased pressure on the available public resources call for privatization of social services such as healthcare has been on the rise. Healthcare privatization takes both medical and ancillary healthcare services out of the national healthcare basket and hands over to the for-profit business leaders. The idea is to improve the quality of healthcare services and solve many of the public service challenges. While the existing universal health coverage is poorly structured to achieve equal access to healthcare without financial barriers, healthcare privatization in Canada is likely to erode the current public healthcare system leaving a considerable number of Canadians without access to insured healthcare.
The healthcare privatization debate in Canada has been around for quite some time. Two critical issues are surrounding the debate exists. The first is the issue of which items should private healthcare providers include as essential benefits as provided under the Canada Health Act. The second issue is the extent in which private sector should be involved in delivering and financing the primary health benefits to patients, considering that Canadians are entitled to receive such health services irrespective of their ability to pay (Armstrong, Armstrong, and Fuller 39). In the Canadian health care system, patients are already assured of a comprehensive basket of medically necessary care. With each province providing public insurance to residents, primary care benefits are accessible to every insured person without any financial barriers (Reid1, 2017). Access to primary medical benefits is a critical component of healthcare, making public service better suited to provide the same as opposed to privatizing the services.
Some people mainly prefer privatization of Canada's healthcare system as the only way to improve the quality of care provided by the medics. The shortage of healthcare providers is attributed to the reduction of healthcare funding in the latter 20th century (Barkun 73). Consequently, public healthcare providers are usually overworked and exhausted to meet the quality of care guaranteed under universal healthcare. Barkun observes that healthcare providers in the private sector offer their services more efficiently to patients who can afford their services (73). Barkun opines that the situation is comparable to the one present in the US yet, the US has more than 46 million residents without medical insurance and another 40 million with inadequate health insurance coverage (73). The observations dispel any arguments for healthcare privatization that is likely to leave many Canadians either without healthcare insurance or benefitting with inadequate coverage. While increasing the funding of the healthcare system by the Canadian government might solve the shortage crisis, privatizing healthcare services is likely to deny many Canadians access to primary healthcare bene...