Taiwan created a successful health-care system by learning from Canada. We should now be learning from them
A commentary I wrote for the CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-health-care-canada-taiwan-1.6584144
Key points
In the 80s, Taiwan fielded a team of experts, headed by a Harvard economist, to “understand how other advanced countries fund and organize health care and learn from their successes and failures”
The USA, Germany, Japan, UK, France, and Canada were studied
The Canadian system of single payer insurance was deemed to be the best, and Canadian healthcare performance in the 80s was excellent
Taiwan has single payer health insurance because of Canada, one of the few countries with true single payer medical insurance, and they have an amazing system
Today, Taiwan spends far less than OECD average on healthcare
Everything is covered by public insurance: drugs, dental, vision, physio, and even traditional Chinese medicine
Unlike Canada, Taiwan’s wait times are minimal-to-none
What did Taiwan do differently than Canada to end up in different places? Taiwan continued to follow expert guidance on how to develop and modernize their healthcare system to face modern challenges
That’s it. That’s the difference between success and failure.
If Canada wants to have a successful system like Taiwan’s, we need to be like Taiwan and follow the guidance of experts. Canadian health policy researchers and organizations like the Ontario Medical Association have all the tips and tricks needed to fix and optimize Canadian healthcare.