The Quebec government has paid significantly more for certain procedures completed in private clinics compared to those done through the public system, data released this week suggests.
The figures, made public through an Access to Information request by the independent Institut de recherche et d’informations socioéconomiques (IRIS), looked at the cost differences for five procedures in public and private settings as part of a provincial pilot project.
The data “couldn’t be clearer,” according to IRIS researcher Guillaume Hébert.
It shows, for example, that the average cost of a short colonoscopy was 2.5 times more expensive in private settings in 2019-2020, costing an average of
