HEALTH CARE AGAIN

Andrew Coyne notes an Environics survey just carried out on Canadians' views on private-sector health care:

Two-thirds (66%) of Canadians say they strongly (31%) or somewhat (35%) support having health care services provided by the private sector, if patients do not have to pay out of their own pockets for these services and the services are covered by tax dollars exactly the same way they are now. One-third oppose this idea either strongly (18%) or somewhat (13%). The results to this question are consistent across all regions of the country and there are no statistically significant differences between the views of men and women and among Canadians at varying income levels....

In response to another question asked in the current survey, one-half (50%) say they agree that individual Canadians should be given the right to buy private health care within Canada if they do not receive timely access to services in the public system, even if this might weaken the principle of universal access to health care for all Canadians by making it possible for some people to have quicker access to services. Although opinion is divided on the subject - 46 percent oppose the idea - it is significant that the survey finds such a high level of agreement even when the spectre of two-tier health care is raised...

It pleases me that Canadians do not see private health care as the demon that it has generally been portrayed as – hopefully the political classes will catch on and realize that this isn't a taboo. If there is a coming struggle between Alberta and the Feds (whomever they may be) it's possible that Klein has a better reading of the current zeitgeist than any of the federal parties.