Thank you for publishing the column by Nadeem Esmail (Express June 29, 2011), a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute. As the former director of Healthy System Performance Studies, he is perhaps the leading researcher and expert on the state of Canada’s health care system. Certainly, compared to at least seven other countries which have universal systems, Canada’s system is unaffordable and an inefficient disgrace.

Canada has been singled out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as badly in need to sensible funding solutions such as those that have been recommended by the Fraser Institute for years and years.

It is definitely time for a major change in our funding policy for Canada’s health care system. It’s like an old car, not running very well. Get a new one! Our monopolistic system is one of the most expensive and inefficient health systems in the western world. How can we continue to be satisfied with the status quo?

The Fraser Forum magazine (May/June 2011) suggests the following: “As the 2004 federal/provincial health accord is set to expire in 2014, the federal government should not get more involved in the management of provincial health systems. Instead, the federal government should suspend enforcement of the Canada health act for five years to allow the provinces to experiment with private sources of funding. Canadians cannot afford to wait any longer, it is time that policy-makers face economic realities and introduce meaningful reform.”

I am confident that our new majority Conservative government will pick up on this idea, and we will finally see some courageous action.

Jim Swan,

Red Deer