The PCQ would rely on direct private-public competition to improve the supply of care

(Quebec) The salvation of the public health network will go through private enterprise, according to the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ).

A government led by Éric Duhaime would rely on the active promotion of competition between the private sector and the public sector and on foreign private investment to improve the supply of health care to Quebecers.

A totally transformed healthcare system, based on direct private-public competition, will be at the heart of the little revolution advocated by the Conservatives during the next election campaign.

Far from being complementary, the contribution of private enterprise should be at the heart of the reform to be carried out, according to them. And if the private companies from here and elsewhere that will invest in health reap profits, so much the better.

Because without direct competition between the public network and the private company, “everything will fail”, predicted the D^r Karim Elayoubi, main spokesperson for the PCQ in health and party candidate in Argenteuil.

“We want foreign investors to use their financial capital, their smart capital, to come here”, to build private hospitals, private clinics, he said, describing his ideal model, conducive to turning patients into customers. .

Competition must become “the central tool” available to the government to “attract investors” who would eventually wish not only to build hospitals, but also to manage them, added the doctor, convinced that it is urgent to end to the state monopoly in health.

The D^r Elayoubi was one of the main speakers invited to participate in the colloquium organized by the party, Saturday, in Quebec, on the place of the private sector in the supply of health care.

According to him, despite the radical nature of the changes proposed by the Conservatives, their proposal does not contradict the principles enshrined in the Canada Health Act, in particular based on universality. A challenge in court would therefore seem to him “unlikely”.

Faced with a new dynamic, with the widest possible opening to private companies and insurance companies, the public health network would organize itself to be more efficient, he believes, to ensure “its survival”, having “no choice to adapt to his competitor”.

The Conservatives want to end the monopoly of the Régie de l’assurance maladie (RAMQ). They would like Quebecers to be able to take out private insurance (known as “duplicate”) for services and care already offered by the RAMQ. For example, a patient waiting for surgery who has private insurance could choose to be treated in a private clinic, if he considers the wait too long in the public sector. In principle, part of the bill would be borne by the insurance company. Tax credits could be made available, eventually.

This still raises the question of accessibility. Not everyone will necessarily be able to afford private insurance, which could be very expensive. People who are doubly insured would therefore eventually have an advantage over others, having the choice between waiting for their turn in the public network or turning to a private clinic. But the PCQ maintains that this way of doing things would be accessible to the middle class and would help free up waiting lists for the public.

According to the D^r Elayoubi, who denounces the current “pseudo-universality”, the monopoly in force is “elitist”, because access to private clinics is reserved only for the rich, the only ones who can assume the costs of a surgical intervention.

To make the system work, the Conservatives are counting on a whole series of major changes, such as allowing mixed practice for doctors, who could easily switch from public to private, from one day to the next, according to which is currently prohibited. The PCQ also wants to significantly increase the number of doctors, aiming to train 300 to 500 more medical students each year.

In addition, we want to increase the powers and autonomy of health professionals, including nurses, and accelerate the recognition of health professionals with foreign degrees.

The Conservatives are also promising to review how hospitals are funded, an idea that has been circulating in other parties for years. The hospitals that treat the most patients would be the ones that would receive the most money from the state. We must see the patient as an income and not as an expense, summarized the D^r Elayoubi.

The PCQ does not seek to “privatize” the health network, but to “liberalize” it, qualified the doctor, who also advocates a great decentralization of the decision-making process.

The freedom of the patient being at the heart of the reform, we want for example that he can choose the hospital where he will receive surgery. In fact, we want hospitals to compete with each other.

The Conservatives believe that a complete overhaul of the health care system will take a decade. But they want to initiate major changes from the first of a possible seizure of power in the National Assembly.

Saturday’s symposium attracted a few hundred activists, on site and in virtual mode. Other speakers had been invited to share their thoughts on the subject: Maria Lily Shaw, economist at the Montreal Economic Institute, Norma Khozhaya, vice-president for research and chief economist at the Conseil du patronat du Québec, as well as as the CEO of the Montreal Economic Institute, Michel Kelly-Gagnon, and the conservative essayist Joanne Marcotte.

The PCQ is on the rise, according to the latest polls. The leader of the party, Éric Duhaime, made a brief appearance at the end of the conference to say that health would probably be the central issue of the next election campaign.