Fellow Ontarian who thinks OHIP (ontario health insurance plan) is a pretty good system overall. One thing that seems to keep everything in balance is the regi

Fellow Ontarian who thinks OHIP (ontario health insurance plan) is a pretty good system overall. One thing that seems to keep everything in balance is the regions (think counties in America) run the hospitals and most doctors run their own practices. The province just pays the bills, which mostly reduces the conflicts of interest. Too much landing at any one level of government is a recipe for things to get neglected. As johan_larson points out, the weakest part of the Canadian system is elective, quality of life procedures. If you need emergency or urgent care you get it, but if a new hip or knee could really change your life the waiting list can be long. When my dad nearly ripped his finger off the hospital stitched him up right away, but it was nearly a year before he saw a plastic surgeon to clean up the scar and help get some mobility back in the finger. Shorter wait times would be great, but I will take it over medical bankruptcy and ever rising insurance premiums like in the US. No one should ever have to decide between medical coverage and other necessities like shelter or food. A argument proponents of single payer health care never seem to focus on enough is it's better economics, both at the macro and micro levels. At a province/state level, having a single payer means huge leverage when negotiating prices. Medical staff deserve to be properly compensated for their highly skilled labour, but having a fixed fee schedule for a procedure works wonders for eliminating waste. Single payer also pools risk across the broadest possible population. All the perfectly healthy 25-45 year olds pay for the care of the very young, very old, and very ill. Private insurance won't ever get that large a pool, so the premiums have to be higher to justify the business. At the personal level, single payer health care is amazingly freeing. With health coverage no longer tied to employment it's much easier for people to take a risk on themselves and start a small business. Or work for a small business that wouldn't be able to afford to offer insurance themselves. It's better for business as well, since the cost and complexity of offering health care is no longer on the books. I almost never hear single payer fans paint opponents as anti-business and they really should; single payer is great for everyone who isn't a medical middle man.