Improving Canadian Health Care takes a serious look at the alternative mechanisms available to introduce new money into the health care system in Canada. By combining a flat deductible and an MSA (medical savings account) targeted at low income individuals for example you can cut medicare costs, improve accountability, build in market incentives for service improvements and give people more power in the health care system. As with all other forms of insurance, a health care deductible would set the maximum amount that individuals would pay towards their own care. A MSA is a tool that allows people to build, tax free (like an RRSP), a pool of money for future health care needs. Better Ways to Finance Medicare looks at the health care usage of Nova Scotians over the last ten years and determines that combining a flat deductible of $325 and a government-financed MSA targeted at individuals who make less than $32,000 would save medicare $88.3 million in Nova Scotia alone and reduce overall demands on the system by about 5 percent, while ensuring the people on low-incomes faced no financial obstacles to obtaining needed medical care.
