Canada’s Best Kept Secret Revealed:
Public health care gives Canada an economic advantage – despite the high dollar
With a Canadian dollar
exchanging almost at par
with the U.S. greenback,
grumblings are being
heard from many corporate
boardrooms that
Canadian businesses have lost a major
edge over U.S. competitors.
This analysis neglects an important
point: As the recent United Auto
Workers-General Motors collective
agreement reminds us, Canadian companies
don’t have to deal with the health
care headaches of our neighbours – or
with the costs. Indeed, the fact that
Canadian companies, large and small,
don’t have to offer health benefits to
compete for the most talented and productive
workers explains in large part
why we are still largely competitive in
the NAFTA era – despite our skyrocketing
dollar.
Convincing proof of Canada’s health
care advantage comes from a 1999
briefing published by The Conference
Board of Canada titled “Corporate
Health Care Costs in Canada and the
U.S.: Does Canada’s Medicare System
Make a Difference?”
The study compares similar U.S. and
Canadian companies in four different
industrial sectors: business services,
pharmaceuticals and chemicals, automobile,
and information technology. It
confirms the existence of a competitive
advantage in Canada’s publicly funded
health care system, demonstrating that
employers’ total health care expenditures
for private and public health
benefits are substantially lower in
Canada than in the United States.
Even though taxes and contributions to
legislated health care benefits are higher
in Canada, these costs do not offset the
significantly higher cost of employersponsored
benefits in the U.S.
Cosy advantage
In a 2003 interview with Alberta Venture
magazine, AMarch 13, 2008 it well by saying
that Canadian businesses don’t know
how lucky they are to operate in a country
with universal health care.
“If I don’t have a firm or a division in
the States and if my sales are a hundred
per cent to the domestic market, it is
certainly easy for me to think it doesn’t
have an effect. But once you get the
rumble of external competition coming
into your previously cosy little business,
you might become more aware of it. It
is clearly an advantage,” he pointed out.
The Council of Canadians has just
launched a new campaign to spread the
message that public health care offers
Canadian businesses and citizens a true
competitive advantage. Best Kept Secret:
Canada’s Health Care Competitive
Advantage will reach out to small and
medium-sized businesses, community
groups and other local organizations to
encourage them to fight to protect and
enhance public health care in Canada.
Representatives from more than 30
Council of Canadians chapters and
coalition partners have selected public
speakers who will be participating in
training sessions in cities across Canada
over the next few months. Presenters
will be equipped with a specialized
speech, PowerPoint presentation and
extensive resource guide that they can
take into their communities.
The 30-minute presentations have
been designed to generate discussion,
and to provide clear evidence not only
of the economic advantages of public
health care, but also of the benefits
of public insurance and non-profit
delivery of health care services. We
will also provide evidence to debunk
myths spouted by people like Canadian
Medical Association President Dr. Brian
Day, who are pushing for health care
privatization.
Of course, we want to do more
than just convince the audience. When
meeting with a group of business people,
we will encourage them to network
with each other, forming a “Businesses
for Public Health Care” group. Adding
a “business voice” in favour of public
health care will go a long way to convincing
the federal government that all
Canadians will benefit from the expansion
of public health care.
Logical choice
For Canadian businesses, and especially
small and medium-sized companies, the
only logical choice is to demand that
the Canadian government maintain 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, as far as possible, in
public, non-profit hands.
Guy Caron is the Health Campaigner, and Jan
Malek is a Communications Administrator at
the Council of Canadians.
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Photo credit: Christina Riley
