Single-Payer Health Care System Would Increase Wait Times, Lead To Physician Shortages, Op-Ed States

There is no perfect solution on either side, but could we regulate health insurance like a utility, just like we do the power and gas companies? They make a profit but have regulatory state and federal agencies that closely monitor their profit levels and increases that are passed along to the public so nobody literally gets left out in the cold...BD

The implementation of a health care system similar to those in Canada and Britain would increase wait times for patients and lead to shortages of physicians in the U.S., Robert Goldberg, vice president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, writes in a Washington Times opinion piece. Goldberg writes that, although Canada has "pumped billions of dollars into its system to reduce waiting times for specialty services, cancer care, first-time health visits and emergency rooms," Health Canada and the Fraser Institute have said "waiting times and shortages have gotten worse." In addition, he writes, price controls have led to shortages of physicians in Britain that "in turn are filled by waiving immigration regulations that allow neurologists with bomb-making skills into the National Health Service," and the College of Family Physicians of Canada has found that 17% of Canadian residents do not have a primary care physician because of a shortage.