By Arthur Weinreb
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
St. Adolphe Quebec, a town of 3,000 in the Laurentians was facing a problem that is increasingly becoming common throughout Canada. They had a doctor shortage. Unlike other areas of the country however, the townspeople decided to do something about it. They formed a co-op and went door to door requesting pledges from their fellow residents of $50 per year for membership, eventually signing up 600 people. The money is used to pay for office expenses and other overhead of doctors who would agree to work in their clinic. Medical services would not be limited to co-op members although non-members would be encouraged to sign up and pledge to pay the annual membership fees.
>Contrary to popular belief, family practitioners are not the ultra rich that they are perceived to be. The costs of running a medical office; rent, equipment, utilities, and staff are expensive and are paid by doctors out of their gross fees for services. Having these expenses paid or at least set off is a great incentive when it comes to attracting a doctor to work in an under serviced area.
>St. Adolphe was not the first Quebec community to organize a medical co-op and will likely not be the last.
>We are not supposed to talk about this in the land of equality but men and women are different. We know this for a fact because Time Magazine discovered it way back in 1992 and put that fact on its cover. An increasing proportion of medical graduates are young women who, in addition to practicing medicine, wish to start and raise a family. Women raising small children are simply less prepared to put in the hours that their male counterparts are. The Quebec co-ops attract women physicians who can practice their profession part time without having to pay for full time overhead. St. Adolphe and the other Quebec communities have been successful in solving their doctor shortages while allowing physicians to practice on a part time basis without that practice being cost prohibitive.
>What is truly amazing about all this is that the residents solved their health care problems without resorting to the government to fix things for them. And all levels of government in Canada exist mainly to provide health care and get rid of all kinds of social ills; they certainly aren't around to fix roads and maintain other infrastructure.
>The usual Canadian response to a health care problem is to whine about it to the government. The government in turn whines and complains to another level of government and all this makes fodder for some of the country's media like the Toronto Star who regale us with stories about all the "victims" of an uncaring society and its right wing governments. In the meantime, the problem not only doesn't get fixed but it gets worse. It's all sound and fury that signifies nothing. But the people of St. Adolphe simply went door to door and through their collective efforts, solved the immediate crisis of a town without sufficient medical care. Governments like the province of Ontario who helped create the doctor shortage by saving health care dollars by reducing the number of medical school admissions, are the last ones who should be relied upon to solve such problems.
>We live in a country where it is not illegal per se to pay for sex but it is illegal to pay for most medical services. It's nice to see a group of people get around the health care system by paying doctors indirectly for overhead rather than for medical services. You have to wonder if the time will come when it will become illegal to pay a doctor's utility bills.
>The people of St. Adolphe and the other Quebec communities should be praised for solving their own health care crises. They truly are a distinct society.
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