Testimony of Dr. Robert McMurtry of Ontario, Canada
Prepared for Rep. John Conyers, Chair, Judiciary Committee,
US House of Representatives
I am a grand-father of four, an orthopedic surgeon, former Dean of Medicine and former Assistant Deputy Minister of Health Canada.
I believe that people in need of care, the ill and the injured should receive care based on need not ability to pay.
I have lived long enough to recall what life was like before Medicare in Canada and what it meant to my family.
My father had rheumatic heart disease as a young man. He became a successful lawyer and father of four. At the age of 53 he was struck down by a severe stroke from which he never recovered. He had no insurance coverage for health care or disability having been denied coverage by private insurers.
A proud man who paid his bills was left with permanent disability and a loss of financial security.
Four years after his stroke hospital insurance came to Ontario, followed by Medicare in 1965 a year after my father’s early death at age 62.
When Medicare came I was a new medical school graduate. I witnessed first hand the transformation of the public, crowded wards into decent spaces. I heard all the claims of impending disaster by established medical practitioners and witnessed very few of the problems that concerned them. Healthcare flourished and became the most popular social program in Canada’s history.
Over the ensuing 40 years I have been privileged to serve in a number of roles in academic medicine, orthopedic practice and government. I continue to practice.
There has never been an occasion in those decades that I or any of my colleagues have had to get permission to deliver care. Decisions to treat or not to treat have always been between us and our patients. My colleagues and I would have it no other way.
Care is delivered based on need not ability to pay.
Recently I have lost my mother and one of my brothers. Another brother and my son were both very ill and are now recovered. Through it all I marveled at the quality state-of-the-art, yet sensitive care they received.
There were no bills to pay.
It is not surprising to me that studies demonstrate that healthcare and health outcomes in Canada compare favourably to those in the U.S.
Like any complex human system, Canada’s Medicare is not without its problems.
Wait times in our system have drawn a lot of attention and frankly some outlandish claims made in the media. Statistics Canada’s latest figures demonstrate that median wait times for Canadians to receive elective surgical care are just 4.3 weeks, for specialty care 4.0 weeks, and for non-emergency diagnostic tests 3.0 weeks While this data is encouraging, we can and are doing better every year [For more information on successful efforts in Canada to reduce wait times, see “Why Wait? Public Solutions to Cure Surgical Waitlists” Canadian Center for Policy Analysis and the BC Health Coalition, www.policyalternatives.ca] Over 85 percent of Canadians support Medicare. The publicly funded single payer system works. It is high quality, efficient and equitable.
R.Y. McMurtry MD, FRCSC, FACS
Orthopedic Consultant
St. Joseph’s Health Care
London Ontario Canada N6A 4L6
robert.mcmurtry@sjhc.london.on.ca
Professor Emeritus
University of Western Ontario School of Medicine
Councilor
Health Council of Canada
Former Dean, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry
University of Western Ontario
Former Assistant Deputy Minister
Population and Public Health Branch
Health Canada