New CMA president: Canadian public health care is 'imploding'

As the U.S. Congress wrestles with government-sponsored health care bills that have often been compared to Canadian, British, and French models, Canada's new medical chief admits that the Canadian model is 'imploding.'

The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association sees a public health care system on the brink of collapse, and the outgoing CMA president is publicly suggesting that more of a private system be implemented. "We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Dr. Ann Doig, incoming CMA president told The Canadian Press. "We know that there must be change. We're all running flat out, we're all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands." Dr. Robert Ouellet, the current CMA president, said there was a need to make the system more patient-centric. According to CP, Dr. Ouellet believes that Canadian wait lists can be made to disappear, and that "competition should be welcomed, not feared." Competition in the Canadian medical system means private health care insurance. "(Canadians) have to understand that the system that we have right now - if it keeps on going without change - is not sustainable," Doig told CP.