The thinking, rightly or wrongly, is that basic health care should be a right and not a privilege. By creating a two tier system the fear is that first it will become more like a commodity with the rich getting better case than the middle and lower class and also that there will be a perception that better doctors will migrate to the private system. I support universal basic health care and the system in Canada for all its faults and waiting time etc works reasonably well. As you and some have pointed out if you have money you can go to the states and many people do.
I am not able to agree with you. I think that health care is a right, and as far as I know Canada is the only country that does not allow private hospitals. Other countries can do it.
On the other hand, I do not have strong feelings about it, because we effectively have a tier 2 because of the proximity to USA. The only complaint I have is macro economic, i.e. that doctors, nurses and money flows to USA.
I believe that the market will limit how many doctors would switch over since there a limited number of people who could afford it.
I agree, more so because even people who could afford it would not want to spend the money.
There are actually very few people that travel to USA for medical procedures. It is estimated that 5,000 canadians a year go to USA for faster service.
Adding to the cost of a procedure is that you have to go to the private hospital for follow up care and checks. I had to travel to USA for several years for follow up checks after my surgery. It is not reasonable to have surgery at a private hospital and then go to the public system for follow up.
