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When comparing public and private health care systems, public health care is often viewed as superior. It does a better job of ensuring that all individuals, regardless of economic standing, can receive affordable access to the care that they need. For example, governments negotiate with the private sector to set price controls for treatment and medication. However, public health care systems can also have glaring imperfections. Canada, a country praised for its publicly funded health care, ranked poorly in quality of care, efficiency and timely access to care in a study conducted by the Commonwealth Fund. Additionally, 99% of all Canadian hospitals and medical centres are publicly owned. To an extent, I consider this practice by the Canadian government to be unethical, as Canadians have very little choice over where they receive care from. I fully agree that the government must be responsible for providing everyone with these services, which is usually considered to be a basic human right. However, the government should not be restricting access to privately funded health care, which burdens and alienates the individuals who can afford and are willing to pay for a higher quality alternative. In other countries, such as France and Germany, this issue is less prevalent as more hospitals (around one in three) are privately owned.

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/yanick-labrie/private-health-care-canada_b_5736760.html

http://www.vox.com/2014/9/2/6089693/health-care-facts-whats-wrong-american-insurance