A new law that ties doctors’ pay to performance targets, and which imposes harsh penalties on any who seek to resist the changes, has drawn the fury of unions in Quebec.
The law, known as “Loi 2,” seeks to replace the existing fee-for-service model with a capitation system, in which doctors are paid for each patient they take on.
This, the government claims, will tackle the problem Quebec’s unattended patients. More than two million of the province’s nine million residents are not registered with a doctor, and Quebec has the longest waiting lists in Canada.
But Loi 2 also makes 10% of doctors’ pay dependent on collective performance targets, which may be regional or province-wide, and which can be set and changed at will by the health ministry.
This has drawn the ire of the three main doctors’ unions—those representing family doctors, specialists, and medical students.
The bill divides patients into categories based on their records, with higher fees attached to sicker patients. Doctors’ groups say that this will discourage …
