Medical Fees

You like modest user fees for medical services.

Now, that may just sound like common sense, but in Canada, it's sacrilege: introducing private payments into the sacred cow of public medicine. Look, waive the fees for children, the poor, seniors on fixed incomes and the chronically ill, but that still leaves a broad segment of the population who should be expected to pay a modest fee - $20? 10% up to a max of $100? - each time they're treated for an illness. Why, you ask?

Society has finite public resources to devote to healthcare. I'd like to see those resources devoted to paying for devastating illnesses, required surgeries, and necessary treatments for those who can't afford them. Canada has dangerously long waiting lists for cancer surgery and MRIs while well-off professionals continue to have basic checkups 100% covered by insurance. Why not tap into disposable incomes - ask people to pull a little of their own weight (in addition to income tax) for medical treatments - in order to provide greater assistance where it's really needed?

I'd happily pay a few hundred dollars each year in fees if I knew it would free up important resources for my family when one of us fell seriously ill.