Fraser Institute argues Canada's healthcare system more restrictive than other countries

The Fraser Institute compared Canada's health policies with those in eight other high-income OECD countries with universal healthcare. The study identified several points of difference revealing Canada's healthcare system to be comparatively restrictive. Examples from the report include:

• Canada remains the only country of the nine where the private sector is essentially shut-out of delivering medically necessary treatment. Private for-profit hospitals would help increase capacity or act as an alternative and comprise 39% of hospitals in Australia, and 43% in Germany;
• Canada is the only country of the nine where private financing for medically necessary services is disallowed, leaving the government system as the only option for patients;
• Canada and the U.K. are the only two countries among the nine where patients are not expected to directly share in the cost of medically necessary treatment. By contrast, deductibles, co-insurance payments and co-payments by patients are staple features of other universal healthcare systems and could encourage responsible use of medical resources; and
• Global budgeting for hospitals is also unique to Canada. Elsewhere, hospitals are more commonly paid based on activity, by procedure or on a per-case basis, which incentivize them to treat patients and potentially reduce wait times.