The dangerous ideas of Dr. Jacques Chaoulli

1. The dangerous ideas of Dr. Jacques Chaoulli Courtesy The Globe & Mailby Margaret Wente Tuesday, June 8 2004 - The Globe & Mail, Page A25 http://www.evalu8.org/staticpage?page=review&siteid=7884

2. Canada’s System • Today is Jacques Chaoulli's day in court -- the Supreme Court. Today, the 52-year-old doctor from Quebec, who will act as his own lawyer, will stand up before the judges and argue that Canada's health-care system inflicts cruel and unusual punishment on people like my mom. • Like thousands of other people, my mom is waiting for surgery, and the line is pretty long, and meantime, she's in pain, and the longer she waits the worse it gets. She's not complaining, mind you. But Dr. Chaoulli is. He argues that if the public system can't give my mom reasonably timely care, she ought to be able to get it elsewhere. "The reason I went to court was because I wanted to help the patients," he told me.

3. The Complaint • Dr. Chaoulli is either the greatest hope for serious reform to Canadian health care in our time, or Public Enemy No. 1. It all depends on whom you ask. Both sides agree on one thing, though. His one-man crusade for patients' rights (oops, to wreck the system) is a big deal. • Dr. Chaoulli argues that people should be allowed to buy private health insurance -- which is currently illegal -- for services the system can't or won't provide in a timely manner. He also thinks people should be able to buy these services from private doctors and hospitals if they want. To help argue his case, he recruited an elderly man who had waited more than a year for a hip replacement and was mad as hell about it.

4. Impacts? • Would this dangerous innovation lead us down the slippery slope to health-care hell? • The critics argue yes, and invariably raise the spectre of the evil empire to the south. Give people choice, they say, and that's the end of health care as we know it. So far, the judges agree. Dr. Chaoulli has lost twice in lower courts, which ruled that allowing private health insurance would probably destroy the public system. What they said was that if my mom's rights are being violated, too bad. • Dr. Chaoulli argues that his proposals would bring Canada in line not with the United States, but with radical nations like Sweden and Australia, where public and private systems co-exist side by side. Australia, for example, has 509 private hospitals that supply a third of the hospital beds.

5. The Economics • Adverse Selection • In the long run, what will happen if people can buy insurance? • Technology • What kind of care will be provided? • Where will it be provided? • By whom?