Yesterday, the Frontier Center for Public Policy published a rebuttal to a Globe & Mail editorial that portrayed healthcare innovation as alarming. This perspective is common in Canada, and what's truly concerning is the widespread resistance to innovation. The fear of adapting, doing more, and improving efficiency with fewer resources is a major cultural barrier that limits productivity growth in the country. While the resistance to change and innovation is a well-studied academic topic, it remains largely unknown to the public. The Frontier Center For Public Policy went straight to the point:
"Here’s the real issue: Canada is an outlier in its resistance to competition in healthcare. Many European countries, which also have universal healthcare systems, allow private and non-profit organizations to operate hospitals. These systems function effectively without the kind of fear-mongering that dominates the Canadian debate."
The article by Joseph Quesnel also concludes with a very fitting quote from Claude Castonguay, the architect of Quebec’s Medicare system.
“In almost every other public and private areas, monopolies are simply not accepted,” he wrote. “Our healthcare system is a monopoly installed at every level with the culture inherent to monopolies, whether public or private. The culture is based on regulation and budgetary controls, closed to the outside world, impermeable to real change, adaptation and innovation. It is a culture that favours inefficiency.”
In our experience working with clients in the life sciences and medical device sectors, we have observed clear signs of resistance to change, including:
Significant delays in responding to information requests
Unanswered phone calls and emails
Overselling of acceleration programs and potential partnerships
Insufficient budgets for pilot projects involving services or medical devices
Limited special access programs for patients (the federal SAP program could be expanded)
A lack of leadership in senior health roles and gaps in knowledge among senior advisors
For more details on this topic, feel free to reach out to us. You can also read the full article here: https://fcpp.org/2024/09/16/healthcare-innovation-isnt-scary-canadas-broken-system-is/
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