The Ford government is willing to let the private sector provide more service, but only in ways and amounts dictated by the government

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If you listen to the Canadian medical establishment, the kind of modest expansion of privately delivered public health care the Ontario government favours is a real walk on the wild side.

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) has just put out a series of recommendations on “managing Canada’s public-private health care balance.” That’s apparently a euphemism for opposing private-sector solutions to health-care deficiencies.

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Sure, 6.5 million Canadians don’t have a family doctor, nearly one-third of them in Ontario. Yes, there are unacceptably long wait times for surgeries and other vital services. The CMA concedes those points, but remains stubbornly suspicious of anyone trying to make a buck by fixing the problems. It’s almost as if the doctors’ group doesn’t realize its own members’ clinics are privately owned and profit-making.

One of the big ideas in the CMA policy paper is that if provinces can’t meet clinical guidelines for timely care, patients should be entitled to fully paid care in another province or country. OK, but the likelihood of finding care in another province is slim. They are all swamped. In effect, the CMA is saying it’s all right to send people to the U.S., where they would almost certainly get care from a private........

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