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There is much controversy surrounding the introduction of “private healthcare” into the Canadian system. But you can all relax because it’s not actually private health care. It’s still public health care, but only the worst version of it.
In Canada, it is illegal to purchase insurance for anything that falls under the public system. No one else does. In the Netherlands, New Zealand, Japan and the UK you can save a few thousand dollars a year on private insurance and – if you need stitches – you can either go to a public hospital or use your insurance to have the stitches done privately. There is a completely different healthcare system here.
That is private healthcare.
But Canada insists the only countries that need stitches are allowed to pay for them. So all of these for-profit healthcare providers still work for the government — and draw on the same rationed supply of doctors and healthcare resources as everyone else.
Except they make a profit.
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