Because doctors’ fees, as such, are not the issue. But all the hard bargaining in the world isn’t going to rescue Canada’s health-care system from the fiscal cliff to which it is headed. Much more important than doctors’ fees are doctors’ decisions, as the gatekeepers dictating how resources are allocated within the system: how many tests are ordered, what procedures are done, and so on. It was always easier to pass the problem on to the next government, or the next generation — or, as federal governments got in on the act, Ottawa. In consequence, health-care spending skyrocketed through much of the 1970s and 1980s.

Source: National Post August 20, 2016 00:11 UTC