Well, in Canada that is.  Today, Rogers Communications announced that it will be bringing Apple’s iPhone to Canada on their national mobile network.  This is a big win for Rogers, but also a classic example of Canada’s long history of being a “wait to adopt nation”.  In the benefits world, this could not be any more classic a scenario.

Canada is a great “wait and see country” when it comes to health benefits.  We are situated mid-way between socialist driven Europe and Free-economy America.  That being said, we tend to wait until one of these two parties develop a new health benefit delivery model then observe performance before we pounce on it.  In marketing, we would be less “early adopter” and more “cautious analyzer”, not that it is a bad thing.  This strategy has actually been beneficial to the global delivery of health benefits as many other countries rely on us to sit back, assess, and perhaps make it better.

As an example, one simply needs to look at our Universal Healthcare system.  We did not invent it, but we certainly perfected it to meet the needs of our people (at the time).  We did not invent Flex Benefits, but we were pioneers in making the election process easier using the Web.  On-line enrollment, tele-claims, and direct-pay drug/dental cards were all heavily influenced by leading Canadian technology companies.  However, while we have had an IT-bulletin from CRA allowing HSAs for years, we have yet to fully embrace them to the same degree as our neighbors to the south.

For the last example, I don’t think we are using a “wait and see” strategy.  We were pioneers in allowing this model to exist and we could be offering these plans to every employee in Canada today.  The strategy we are using here is “cautious execution”.  I think we like the concept but want to see how other countries fare in rolling it out before we go full-throttle with any legislative changes.  Will we go down the full consumer-driven healthcare model like our friends to the south or follow the UK model?  Most likely, like everything we do, we will wait and create new HSA legislation to suit our needs and set a new standard for the world.

I wonder if this culture of “waiting to perfect” will have an impact on the iPhone?  I for one would like to see it incorporated as a TV remote as well as a phone, PDA and iPod.  Hmm, maybe I am on to something here.

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