F#%k the CHR

I am getting more and more acute care patients here at the holistic clinic. Now I don't mind that so much except for the fact that I'm not set up for acute care!

Why are those big mega-monolithic hospitals turning people away? Why are waiting times five hours or more? Why are people leaving emergency without ever seeing anyone?

Today's paper (Calgary Herald, June 28, 2006) has a picture of potential patient Temple Weeks, suffering from what is suspected food poisoning, leaving emergency after four hours without seeing a doctor. And in an associated article the mighty Calgary Health Region is stating that waiting times have increased dramatically in recent years. Increased! Is that possible?

Well, f#%k the Calgary Health Region. Health is an issue for which responsibility should be passed onto the consumer of health care. The medicos, being a monopoly supplier of services, simply are not responsive to the needs of consumers ... nor is the CHR able to budget accordingly given limited monetary resources.

The $3.2 billion dollar Calgary Health Region annual budget should be given to the people of Calgary. Yup. That is $3000 per person per year.

Now the medicos will be falling all over themselves to deliver health services to Calgarians as that is the only way they will get paid. Mr. Temple Weeks would simply have gone to a local, neigbourhood clinic to have his food poisoning checked and treated. Instant service.

You know what this kind of health care is called? It is called consumer-driven health care. Everything remains essentially the same except that the government funds the consumer of health care instead of the monopoly suppliers of health care. If health care was optimally set up then nothing would change. I suspect, however, that much in the delivery and prioritization of health care would change in response to empowered consumer demand. I've blogged before about this on nursing homes.

Now you just know that the doctors will all get together and fix the price of their services. Business is business, afterall. So, in order to prevent such consumer-screwing activity, a competitive health model must be set up. This is done by recognizing Alternative-health paradigm services. Calgarians already spend about $75 million for out-of-pocket Alternative-health paradigm services, and another $75 million'ish for out-of-pocket "private" health care. We will just recognize this already existing health service into the current health system. Now we have competition AND a parallel, competing health care system. This will prevent either system of health from price fixing.

There you go. Problem solved. Spending capped. Services readily available.

Don't say you haven't been told.