Stories

How the Baby Boomers Blew it on Healthcare

Mark Milke
October 29, 2009
Medical savings accounts won’t solve all of Medicare’s ills but they make sense in contrast to global health care budgets which are understandably directed to respond to immediate needs as opposed to future needs. But that’s why such accounts are needed. Their non-introduction has been the biggest missed opportunity of the past half-century.
Stories

How the Baby Boomers Blew it on Healthcare

Mark Milke
October 29, 2009
Medical savings accounts won’t solve all of Medicare’s ills but they make sense in contrast to global health care budgets which are understandably directed to respond to immediate needs as opposed to future needs. But that’s why such accounts are needed. Their non-introduction has been the biggest missed opportunity of the past half-century.
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter

If an “award” were ever given to Canadian governments for their most botched-up policy area, nothing could trump the health file. Ever since the 1960s and the arrival of universal coverage (the one signature achievement Ottawa and the provinces can justifiably point to) the various governments have otherwise made a hash of our health.

Some might argue health care isn’t so bad and assert no Canadian goes bankrupt. And the inevitable comparisons will be made with the United States and how that system falls short.

But the clichéd U.S. comparisons ignore the problems within our own system. Our waiting lists may not bankrupt people. But our health care queues prolong the pain of those who suffer. In the very worst outcomes, waiting lists kill patients who don’t receive treatment fast enough.

Then there is our inefficient delivery method. Misnamed “defenders” of Medicare mistakenly presume greed disappears if governments label something public and give control of the health care system to large, quasi-monopolistic health care unions.

All that does is institutionalize greed, subject governments to the whims of monopolists, and mess up proper compensation such as not paying general physicians enough but unionized pressure groups more. That approach prevents public, private and non-profit hospitals, clinics and staff from competing to deliver excellent service in the most cost-effective manner.

Lastly, there are the swings between government-managed health care at the local level (regional health authorities such as in British Columbia) and the assumption a “super board” will be the answer to all that ails us (Alberta recently moved to this model)–which misses the larger point on monopolized service delivery regardless of whether the top bureaucrats are in one board or dozens.

Pathetic as all such policy mistakes have been, they pale when compared to the biggest cock-up: how baby boomers neglected to pre-fund their health care.

Many baby boomers will rightly object to being lumped in with past policies they didn’t support so blame past political leaders if you want. But consider why such a lack of pre-funding matters: because the baby boom generation, the largest cohort alive, is hitting retirement age, precisely when more health care is needed.

Consider the baby boom bulge and how it will put pressure on provincial health care budgets. In 1956, only 7.7 per cent of the population was age 65 or older. By 2006, that figure almost doubled to 13.7 per cent. Using a medium growth scenario provided by Statistics Canada, by 2011, the over-65 cohort will be 14.4 percent, 16.4 per cent by 2016, 18.7 per cent by 2021, 21.2 per cent by 2026, and 23.4 per cent by 2031.

Looking back, had governments paid attention over the last several decades, they would have initiated something known as medical savings accounts. Think of them as the medical equivalent of RRSPs or even the Canada Pension Plan which, after 1997, began to pay attention to demographic realities. It changed from a pay-as-you-go pension system to a partly pre-funded one. (The CPP is not perfect there either but that’s another matter.)

Singapore initiated medical savings accounts decades ago and they make eminent sense. The basic concept is each person must save a portion of his/her income to be withdrawn only for medical needs as they arise. They are not the only reform needed but because they are tied to individuals, they help a society adjust to demographic realities. Had politicians in 1956 or even 1986 been far-sighted, such funds would now be available to transition the baby boomers into better health care.

Dr. David Grazter, a Toronto and Manhattan physician originally from Winnipeg, recommended such accounts ten years ago in Code Blue, his award-winning book on Canadian health care. Former federal Tory cabinet minister Don Mazankowski served up a version of the same in his recommendations to the Alberta government earlier this decade.

Canadians are about to endure some painful cuts in health care because there is no other choice: Run deficits for long and the extra interest payments cut into what’s available for doctors, nurses and hospital beds.

Medical savings accounts won’t solve all of Medicare’s ills but they make sense in contrast to global health care budgets which are understandably directed to respond to immediate needs as opposed to future needs. But that’s why such accounts are needed. Their non-introduction has been the biggest missed opportunity of the past half-century.

Love C2C Journal? Here's how you can help us grow.

More for you

The Housing Market Isn’t Racist. Blame Your Parents Instead

Diversity may be our strength. But it is now alarmingly commonplace in Canada to blame any perceived diversity in outcomes between racial groups on vaguely-defined “systemic racism” or “white supremacy”. Case in point: the Federal Housing Advocate’s allegations of rampant racism in Canada’s housing market, and the need to address it with outlandishly disruptive policies. Delving deep into Statistics Canada’s ample supply of race-based data, Peter Shawn Taylor considers the evidence for racism in Canadian housing, education, income and poverty statistics, and finds a more convincing explanation much closer to home.

Young Offenders: Meet the Angry Socialists Poisoning Our Politics

Social media is widely blamed for poisoning the public conversation on a range of topics – especially politics and contentious social questions. But there’s a possibly even more dangerous force growing on the internet: an online community of YouTubers and livestreamers spouting far-left dogma, praising political violence and denigrating their opponents as evil, far-right fascists. Using fallacious arguments, psychological manipulation and overheated rhetoric, they seek to radicalize young people and convert them to their cause. Millions are tuning in, and mainstream “progressive” politicians are jumping on their bandwagons. Noah Jarvis profiles three of these socialist crusaders and explains why they are such a threat.

The Worrisome Wave of Politicized Prosecutions

Shaping criminal charges, bail decisions or prison sentences around an accused person’s political or religious beliefs is utterly odious – a hallmark of tinpot tyrannies and totalitarian hellholes. Such practices have no place in any constitutional nation, let alone a mature democracy that presents itself as a model to the world. But that is increasingly the situation in Canada, writes Gwyn Morgan. Comparing the treatment of protesters accused of minor infractions to those of incorrigible criminals who maim and kill, Morgan finds a yawning mismatch that suggests political motivations are increasingly a factor in today’s criminal justice system.

More from this author

Not So Beautiful Minds: Conspiracy Theories from JFK to Oliver Stone and Donald Trump

Shocking events that plunge a country into chaos or destroy a beloved leader are hard for anyone to process. The evil done is so towering it bends the human psyche to accept that the evildoer is utterly banal, a loner walking in ordinary shoes. The cause simply must befit the outcome; thus can a conspiracy theory be hatched. At other times, the cold hope of political or financial gain or simple mischief might be the source. There certainly is no shortage of conspiracy theories. Mark Milke revisits one of history’s most famous political assassinations and the conspiracy theories it spawned to illuminate the ongoing danger this toxic tendency poses to us all.

Picture of Thomas Hobbes frontispiece of Leviathan. A renowned pieceof political work on liberty

Future of Conservatism Series, Part VII: Memo to Politicians: We’re Not Your Pet Projects

Canadian conservatives have most of the summer to ruminate on what they want their federal party to become – as embodied by their soon-to-be elected leader, anyway. Acceptability, likability and winnability will be key criteria. Above all, however, should be crafting and advancing a compelling policy alternative to today’s managerial liberalism, which has been inflated by the pandemic almost beyond recognition. Mark Milke offers a forceful rebuttal against the Conservative “alternative” comprising little more than a massaged form of top-down management.

Leaders_debate_2019_canada_diversity_bias_free_speech_liberal_conservative

So Much for Diversity: The Monochromatic Moderators of Monday’s Debate

Canada is a big, diverse country by virtually any measure, from our no-longer-so-sparse population to our epic geography to the ethnic makeup of our people. Diverse in every way, it seems, except in our elites’ aggressively progressive official-think. Consistent with this is the otherwise bizarre decision to have Monday’s federal leaders’ debate hosted by five decidedly similar female journalists. Mark Milke briefly profiles the five and, more important, advances a positive alternative: five distinguished women diverse in background, hometown and, above all, thought.

Share This Story

Donate

Subscribe to the C2C Weekly
It's Free!

* indicates required
Interests
By providing your email you consent to receive news and updates from C2C Journal. You may unsubscribe at any time.