There’s something about Canada’s health care system that business leaders aren’t telling you. In fact, it’s Canada’s best kept secret.

While we often hear about how taxation levels affect a corporation’s ability to compete in the global marketplace, we rarely hear about a major advantage that Canadian businesses have over their U.S. counterparts: universal health care.

Canadian businesses clearly have a major advantage, because most of their employees’ medical costs are covered by our universal public health care system. And though many pay for extended coverage for services such as dental care and pharmaceuticals, the costs aren’t anywhere close to what U.S. companies must absorb.

Still, it seems that many Canadian business leaders don’t realize that private, for-profit health care is not the cure for Canada’s health care system. The challenge is now to convince business leaders to fight the incursion of for-profit health care in Canada. After all, it’s in their best interest.

The Council of Canadians' downloadable booklet Best Kept Secret: Canada’s Health Care Competitive Advantage provides information about the need to fight to protect and enhance public health care in Canada.

For Canadian businesses, and especially the small and medium-sized companies, the only logical choice is to demand that the Canadian government maintains a strong public universal insurance program, and non-profit delivery of health services. It is in all of our interests to ensure that health care delivery and insurance remain to as large an extent as possible in public or non-profit hands.