Myth: A parallel private system would reduce waiting times in the public system.

Public, provincial and federal leaders have vowed to do something about long waiting times, but they face many conflicting suggestions on how to fix the problem. One frequent suggestion is to create a parallel private healthcare system — specifically, allowing private facilities to operate alongside public ones, so that patients who can afford to pay privately do so. Proponents argue that private spending will both increase total funding available for healthcare and free up places in the queue for public services, so that everyone can get faster treatment. According to these critics, Canada is one of the last countries to resist the logical evolution to a mixed-payer system. It’s only a matter of time, they argue, before Canada gets it and joins the rest of the crowd.