A new report from the Fraser Institute is suggesting that Canada can improve its health care system and reduce wait times for treatment by adopting the Swiss health care model.

"The Swiss health care system provides health care to all its citizens with minimal wait times at a lower cost than Canadians pay," said Nadeem Esmail, Fraser Institute director of health policy studies and author of Health Care Lessons from Switzerland. "Any discussion of changing the Canadian health care system too often gets bogged down in fear-mongering about the American system. The United States is not an example Canada should follow, instead we should be looking to countries like Switzerland for examples of success."

The Fraser Institute is examining the way health services are funded and delivered in other developed countries where health care is available to everyone regardless of a person's ability to pay.

The series Health Care Lessons from Switzerland compares age-adjusted performance of the Canadian and Swiss health care systems.

Differences highlighted in the report include:

  • The Canadian system consumes 12.5 percent of GDP compared to 10.8 percent in
        Switzerland
  • Switzerland has more physicians (3.6 per 1,000 people compared to Canada's 2.6)
  • Switzerland has more nurses (14.4 per 1,000 people to 10.3 in Canada)
  • Switzerland has more CT scanners (31.0 per 1,000 people to Canada's 15.2)

Wait time differences:

  • 93 percent of Swiss patients reported being able to obtain a same-day or next day appointment with a physician or nurse, compared to 45 percent of Canadian patients
  • 82 percent of Swiss patients waited less than one month for a specialist appointment compared to 41 percent of Canadian patients
  • 55 percent of Swiss patients reported waiting less than one month for elective surgery compared to 35 percent of Canadian patients

Other benefits of the Swiss system include:

  • Cost sharing for all forms of medical services
  • Private provision of acute care hospital and surgical services
  • Activity-based funding for hospital care
  • Permissibility of privately funded parallel health care.

The report says that the success of Switzerland's health care system is thanks to a blend of public and private options and the fact that it does not rely on a tax-funded monopoly government insurer.

The Swiss model provides universal coverage in an insurance premium-funded system and citizens buy individual universal health insurance policies from independent insurance companies and also pay premuims to them.

"Canadians need to get past the antiquated notion that private-sector participation in health care is something to be feared and avoided. Switzerland shows that private competition can be employed to deliver high quality, universally accessible hospital and surgical services," Esmail said.

The Swiss plan also provides for low-income citizens by offering an income/wealth-based subsidy for the cost of health insurance.

According to the report, the Swiss system puts health care and health care insurance in private hands and the government takes care of maintaining the regulatory structure.