IM_Blomqvist and Wyonch_2022_0619.pub

IM_Blomqvist and Wyonch_2022_0619.pub Intelligence Memos From: Åke Blomqvist and Rosalie Wyonch To: Canada’s Ministers of Health Date: June 20, 2022 Re: A Dutch Model for Canadian Healthcare The pandemic has revealed the fragility of Canada’s healthcare system, and there is growing recognition that change is needed to curb rising costs and promote efficiency. [...] Adapting the system to evolving technology would benefit from the competitive forces in a multipayer financing model (like that in the Netherlands) where consumers have a choice among different insurance plans. [...] As a result, the healthcare system can adapt and become more efficient owing to voluntary decisions by consumers and providers, without the need for politically difficult reforms. [...] The modernization of a publicly funded single-payer system that covers all patients and providers can only happen as a result of initiatives by politicians, and reforms to improve the system’s efficiency will always be controversial. [...] Switzerland, Germany, Israel and the Netherlands offer examples of multipayer financing systems where costs are much lower than in the US and health insurance coverage is universal (and includes more than the Canadian system, such as prescription drugs.) One way to make the introduction of a multipayer model less controversial would be to treat existing provincial health insurance plans as a defau.