Pushing Right Against the Evidence: Turbulent Times for Canadian Health Care‪.‬

Throughout the history of Canadian Medicare, there have been those who have opposed the universal, publicly funded system and advocated for greater private sector involvement. Amidst widespread public dissatisfaction with some aspects of Canadian health care--wait lists for some medical services, inadequate out-of-hospital drug coverage, and difficulties in accessing primary care--a series of recent events has shifted the public debate toward privately financed medicine, even as more Americans have been drawn toward universal public coverage. Certainly Canadian health care is in need of system reform. However, in a remarkably short time, the debate about the direction of reform has been transformed from one rooted in rigorous policy science, careful consideration of the empirical evidence, and an explicit commitment to universality, solidarity, equity, and the efficiencies of a single-payer, publicly-funded, not-for-profit system to one dominated by support for private and profit-driven systems and cut loose from solid evidence about what promotes equitable, effective, efficient, and sustainable health care. In fact, the move toward privatization rests on the repudiation of evidence-based health policy.