Canada

It's not right for politicians to undermine publicly-funded, evidence-based healthcare.

We don't test for no reason. No test is perfect. And so doctors will order a test when the imperfect test can meaningfully inform subsequent decision-making, based on other pieces in the clinical picture.

I'm not sure how the system will manage medically unnecessary tests on many levels.

Let's say some rich asshole, considering themselves an expert and wanting to take advantage of this anti-democratic system, pays for an MRI of their head with no doctor's referral simply because they have a headache.

What priority is their scan given? Can they bump a medically necessary scan? Is it clearly communicated to the radiologist interpreting the scan that only a patient and not a healthcare provider deemed it necessary? Is the cranial MRI marked as medically unnecessary on any subsequent health records? (From a healthcare perspective, when one sees a cranial MRI done, they're thinking something much more clinically relevant than a headache happened; and this stands to cause a lot of confusion and wasted time)

Also, diverting the system towards privatization is a huge abandonment of trying to improve our public system. Shame on the UCP!