LETTER: Need to change our perspective on private healthcare

SooToday received the following letter to the editor from reader Ryan Mosher in response to an earlier letter under the heading Privatization won't fix Ontario's health care issues.

I am a casual reader of SooToday and I have personal experience using both Canadian and American Healthcare systems. 

From 2005 through 2015 I was a resident in the state of Michigan and the remaining 33 years of my life a resident in Ontario.

During my time in Michigan, I paid cash for medical, dental, pharmaceutical and optical expenses for myself and my family. 

Using my WalMart Employee health savings account, I found that the prices of services I thought were expensive, were not and we did not have to wait long for important appointments.

I understand and respect Mr. Slater’s opinion and slightly agree that a major change may not be a great idea, but I disagree with his overall assessment. 

Mr. Slater has given us an example of the public system failing in two situations, with scheduling/booking and medical transportation availability, and no factual basis for his overall conclusion that privatization will not work.

For example, Mr. Slater chose to drive his son, at his own time and expense to Toronto. This private option was always available to his son, and if Mr. Slater’s son had known in advance of the public transportation delays, he could have made different arrangements. This is but one small area where a private option could benefit northern communities. 

We Ontarians need to open our minds to the statistical evidence that consistently shows us that consumer (patients in this case) choice benefits everyone.

Economic principles prove this fact time and again. 

Properly giving options (such as transportation) to patients about their care will undoubtedly take the burden off the healthcare workers. We need not look at the small picture in front of us. Small changes can certainly be made to enable the bigger picture, our provincial healthcare system, without adding an additional financial burden to patients.

Lastly, if we always use the same variables, we will always have the same or similar results. We need to change the variables. We need to understand that our healthcare will forever be limited by a finite budget handed down by the provincial government. The beggar cannot be a chooser, and that is essentially what we are, when it comes to our current healthcare model.

Thank you for your time. I hope this counter-argument helps in some way.

Ryan Mosher, MBA