![[small-web-version_harperfree_poster.jpg]](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WGczmWu7Wwc/SdCJyy2LN1I/AAAAAAAABWE/ABYCkbJaKaQ/s1600/small-web-version_harperfree_poster.jpg)
So does Keith Martin
“Only one source … can provide the extra monies we need to fund our medical needs: the private sector.” This is according to Keith Martin, a former Reform/Alliance party and, since 2004, Liberal Member of Parliament. He has never supported a publicly owned health care system and has been a strong advocate of privatization. He’s also a doctor. I understand that this might give him a unique insight into the issues currently surrounding Canadian health care, however my Canada does not include any privatization. I would be naive to think that privatization doesn’t already play a part in our health care delivery. I wish it didn’t. Privatizing services always leads to issues of lack of regulatory oversight, among other things. Public health care reduces waste, paperwork, and makes the delivery of health care, which should be the most important thing, more effective since the middle man is eliminated. As soon as you introduce a middle man, an insurance company, you have someone between you and your health provisions. It means that people are given preferential access above others. It means that those with the means can get the best treatment, while thought without are left behind. This is why Tommy Douglas brought in our National Health Care and why he was voted the Greatest Canadian. Let’s face it, right now the percentage of health care costs paid by the government is only 69%. The rest is paid by us through fees. Health care has already been privatized under our noses and Mr Martin, if he had his way, would push the government further out of our health care, denying Seniors and those without means to cut back on their services. How insane is this.
Personally, I think Martin should be booted from caucus for this outrage. This is a key element of Canadian society that is being steadily eroded. We will end up paying more and more while the industry becomes less regulated and more wasteful. As it stands, our health care system is efficient and is working. We do need to address wait times, but not by excluding people and allowing others with money to cut in line. We need to provide more doctors, more nurses, more home care workers and most importantly, need to focus on preventative care. If obesity rates are going up, lets really tackle the reasons. If salt intake is going up, let’s tackle these reasons. If people are not getting enough nutrients, let’s tackle the reasons. The answer is not privatization but to restore what health care was before business got a hold of it.
I applaud Ujjal Dosanjh for speaking out against Martin on this because Martin is out to lunch. Donsanjh has also hit back on those who say costs are soring to 50% of government budgets, saying that we have spent the same percentage of our GDP on health for years and that provincial governments (see Campbell’s newest tax cut) have insisted on needless tax cuts instead of investing in health. As a percentage of GDP, we aren’t spending anymore now then we were 20 years ago. So Martin’s moral solution to make access better by privatizing it is completely out in left (er…right) field. As long as Dosanjh, and to a larger scale Ignatieff, stick to their guns on public health, hopefully we will not see our universal health care system erode away more then it has.
He may just do that. He only won his riding by about 64 seats, was it? If he loses next election, it’ll be to the Harpercons anyway. I’m sure the Harpercons would love to have him back. One more easy seat toward that coveted majority.
Yeah, I know, he voted with the whip on the long gun registry, but Stevie spiteful has a gift with dah spin. I’m sure he would make Martin into some kind of “it’s not his fault”…”he’s seen the light…” “he never supported the registry, but couldn’t vote his conscience…” And other crap like that.
Good to see that Ujjal Dosanjh gave him that public spanking he oh so deserved. That may also be the push Martin needs to leave; being publicly thrown under the bus by another party member such as Dosanjh.
I cannot rationalize any argument for a private/public system. Not, not in my Canada. If we want to be egalitarian then we go all public and we make it work. If we invest in it properly and we forget the cuts to big corporations, we will be much better off.
I’m wondering how “privatized” the doctors of BC would want to be if they knew damn well that they wouldn’t get one red cent from MSP? As it is, their private clinics are pulling in public dollars…and in some cases have taken both public AND private monies! Nothing like having both nostrils in the trough is there?
If they want private health care, let them have it. Force them to sign an agreement stating they will never accept funds from the public system. That they’ll never use public monies in the form of grants to build, or equip their private clinics and hospitals, or to study medical issues. Too, all subsidies to their pharma buddies will also be cut off – no more funding for any of them. If they want private – give them private. As it is, Martin is like those in the insurance industry with their eyes on the prize – the HUGE profits they can pull in if they derail public health care in Canada.
Tommy Douglas was voted the Greatest Canadian, let’s vote Martin and doctors like him – the worst.
The Charest Government here in Quebec is no different. Thanks to that Supreme court decision, Chaoulli v Quebec Gov’t., we have the most private for profit health care facilities of different assortments and doctors are leaving the public system for the private. Charest keeps sinking more and more money into the private for profit, thus making the public system suffer further. I remembered Shona Holmes going ga ga giddy on her support group on Facebook thinking our waiting lists were next to nothing because of our private facilities. Total myth. Waiting lists are just as long as everyelse, mostly for the reason I just described above.