Health Care ponderings.....

In light of the recent federal election, and the sore need that is our health care system, I wanted to ask you guys your opinions on Two-Tiered Health Care, and Private Health Care.

Here is what I am thinking;
-The current system is overworked and wait times for essential procedures are outrageous. If a person can afford to pay for an essential service, would that not effectively remove them from the queue? And considering they are paying their own way, wouldn't that free up thier tax money to pay for someone's procedure who is less fortunate?

-The current system is underfunded. This is only true since the Harris axe fell, but before that mandate took effect, the system was bloated with misuse and waste of funds. There needs to be a balance between the two at some point. In a true two-tiered medical system, funding for the public side of health care would continue to come from our tax money, but essentially, people would be 'paying' to use the private side twice, through taxation and user fees.

-The argument that a two-tiered health care system would see a flood of medical expertise to the private sector seems a little redundant to me. In a country where people are dictated to by the government all the time (overtaxation, by-laws, extortion.... oops, was that last one out loud?), wouldn't it be simple to just mandate that salaries in the private sector be capped at, or even slightly below that of the public sector. The choice for a prospective nurse or doctor, then, would be less clouded by monetary considerations, and more driven by the ideal that sends most people into medicine in the first place, 'Helping People'. And I'm sure that the private companies that are interested in building clinics wouldn't balk at the idea of capped salaries, therefore having to spend less on staffing costs, which in health-care are a massive expense.

These are a few of my thoughts.... what do you think?
Peace,
Shamus

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