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February 23, 2010

Tommy Douglas: Our Health Is A Political Football

Their health* is important.

Posted by Kate at February 23, 2010 12:39 PM
Comments

The Canadian health care system would collapse without the US system for a back-up.

Posted by: the bear at February 23, 2010 12:50 PM

Doctors practicing in Newfoundland are not good enough for me. The medical education given at Memorial University is not good enough for me.
ect...

Posted by: marc in calgary at February 23, 2010 12:54 PM

I guess a large bank account "ALLOWS" one to be a hypocrite

Posted by: Rob C at February 23, 2010 12:55 PM

"I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics."

But now that I'm a politician, I'm in favour of denying you that right. Just because I can. I'm also in favour of forcing you by law to pay for the care of others, including those that don't deserve care, and I'm in favour of denying you by law the right to spend your own resources on your own health without leaving the country. Just because I can.

Posted by: nick at February 23, 2010 1:11 PM

A couple of generations later and no one knows the difference. If you asked anyone they'd swear that their health care was free. This way people don't know what a rip-off their getting for the dollars that magically disappear from their income...without their knowledge....supposedly.

Posted by: Lily Ledbetter at February 23, 2010 1:11 PM

There's only one word that comes to mind right now and that's ASSHOLE.

Posted by: Brent at February 23, 2010 1:11 PM

Why didn't the reporters ask if he would push to have the procedure he had added to the list of publicly funded procedures?

Its not that the doctors in Canada don't know about more advanced / less evasive procedures, its that the politicioans haven't put it on the list nor bought the equipment for it.

Of course that may have something to do with the fact that publicly funded health-care for all can never afford the real good stuff the "evil, rich" get.

When something is profitable it is made available to those who pay the profitable price, when it is socialized it is rationed according to bureaucratic budgets. Heart surgery becomes just a cost code on a ledger somewhere, reduce the number from 5 a day to 4 a day and look how much we save.

The middle class is left rotting with the lower class under the guise of fairness, while our betters always have the US/cash option.

Posted by: duffman at February 23, 2010 1:16 PM

And if it turns out he's not entitled to reimbursement, well, he's gong to accept that, as if he was doing us a favour. What a piece of crap. And for those that defend him, try to grasp the main point here; if you praise limited choice and enforce it on other people, then live by that.

Posted by: hudson duster at February 23, 2010 1:25 PM

I really, really loathe Danny Williams. I have nothing good to say about the man, or the people who vote for him. Therefore, I will comment no further...

Posted by: Colin from Mission B.C. at February 23, 2010 1:28 PM

Say 'Goodbye' Danny, your time is over. You have no one to blame but yourself. After all, you can't blame us for booting you out of office.

Posted by: grok at February 23, 2010 1:28 PM

There is a reason we call this 60 year old man "Danny" and not Dan, and that is because he is still a petulant child.

Posted by: Sylvanguy at February 23, 2010 1:31 PM

"This was my heart, my choice and my health," Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla.

"I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics."

Denying choice to others is, however, what you and other Canadian politicians have been doing for most of my life.
Enjoy your well cared for black skeevy little heart, Danny boy.

Posted by: Oz at February 23, 2010 1:45 PM

And so is Shirley Douglas some kind of an expert on health care systems? How being the spawn of someone grants them some kind of clairvoyance or special knowledge in a field is way beyond me.

I am so sick and tired of the propaganda surrounding our #30 health care system. It is the radical left wing idealogues and medical system unions that are holding Canada's system back and Canadians have been so brainwashed they can't see straight.

Our family doctor came from South Africa about five years ago. He has practiced in a number of countries and he says - in no uncertain terms - that Canada's system is poor but Canadians are completely oblivious to the fact because they don't know any better.

Posted by: John Luft at February 23, 2010 1:56 PM

Hypocrite. I do not mind that Premier Williams spent his own money and had the procedure done out of the country. I detest him for being part of the elite that insist that healthcare has to be government controlled and rationed 'for the common good'.

A question for all supporters of state run care. How is it in a supposedly free country that a doctor can only work for the government at a rate of pay set by the government? The medical class has been enslaved by the government which claims to provide us 'free' healthcare (which is rationed to balance the budget) using our extorted tax dollars. I am in the field of aviation not medicine, by the way.

In a free country, a citizen can enter into an agreement with a doctor for a service at an agreed upon price. The government has no business in that transaction unless a crime or breach of contract occurs.

Posted by: Al_in_Ottawa at February 23, 2010 1:58 PM

HYPOCRITE!

Posted by: Mark Peters at February 23, 2010 1:58 PM

Had a two-tier system existed in any of our provinces, I don't doubt Danny would have had to have gone much further than Halifax.

Hell, there might even have been a private clinic in St. John's if some hotshot doctor thought there was a good living to be made from it.

And Danny wouldn't have looked quite so two-faced.

Posted by: JJM at February 23, 2010 2:06 PM

Is the CBC going to hammer on him for going to the U.S. for Bush-style private healthcare? Just like they did when Layton did it?

God knows the shitstorm that they'd manufacture if Harper went to the U.S. for a procedure.

Posted by: grok at February 23, 2010 2:07 PM

Makes me sick.

Might as well go get in the cattle chute and wait my turn.

Posted by: Curious at February 23, 2010 2:12 PM

I detest him for being part of the elite that insist that healthcare has to be government controlled and rationed 'for the common good'.

It's the something-for-nothing Canadian public that insists on this lunacy. Don't expect a politician to attempt to try and sell an unmarketable commodity: much smaller government, higher after-tax incomes, self reliance. When -- but really a big IF -- the culture changes, our politicians will reflect this. Politicians don't lead; they find a line and run up in front of it.
Ask yourself this question: what would be the shelf life of a politican who advocated even a small deductible ($10) for each doctor visit. Or this one: one who advocated allowing Canadians to opt out of 'universal' health care with a corresponding tax reduction.

Calling politicans hypocrites is trite.

Posted by: Me No Dhimmi at February 23, 2010 2:12 PM

The real question that nobody in the MSM wants to ask is: "How much of this procedure was covered by Newfie Medicare?"

Did they pay anything at all? Did they give him the same rate as if they had to refer him to another province or country? How about travel expenses? so many questions, so much to deny.

Posted by: Texas Canuck at February 23, 2010 2:16 PM

Hahaha ... youse Albertans have to pay for your sickness care Zwoz says.... we get ours free.
...-

"Medical system will remain publicly funded, says Zwozdesky
Edson Leader - Ed Moore - ‎3 hours ago‎
Albertans should rest assured that the province's health care system will remain publicly funded, says the Minister of Health and Wellness."

Posted by: maz2 at February 23, 2010 2:19 PM

My so called doctor sends me for a cat-scan on my hip, it takes 3 months of waiting and well over 7 grand in tax dollars. Meanwhile in Seattle you can have one the same week you call for an appointment and its only 25 hundred. GO FIGURE.

Tommy the commie Douglas is NOT near dead enough!

...and I didn't need the damn thing but his buddies at St Paul's need the coinage, I had already told him what the damn thing showed.

Doctors in Canuckistan the ones who aren't good enough for elsewhere.

Posted by: FREE at February 23, 2010 2:29 PM

And of course any of us can also hop on down to Florida to jump the queue here. Oh yeah we CAN'T AFFORD TO. We have to wait in line. And be happy that we don't have to pay for it....Oh yeah we actually DO have to pay for it in increased taxes and premiums every month off my pay cheques. But we don;t have to pay for it. Except for extra stuff. When my wife was fighting breast cancer, she needed a drug to boost her immune system so she could tolerate the chemo. Well sorry but you have to cough up $3600/mo yourself. If we weren't fortunate enough to have a company drug plan she may have not had the opportunity to take chemo to get rid of the cancer. But don;t worry, the treatment was free. Oh except for all the travel because the treatment wasn't available in our town. Yup our system is working great...

Posted by: Rick Rae at February 23, 2010 2:32 PM

"My health, my choice. Your health, my choice."

Posted by: EBD at February 23, 2010 2:36 PM

I remember that in 2005, the Sask NDP convention proposed a resolution to ban private MRI clinics and results from private MRI clinics. Too many citizens, tired of the year or so wait, were going to AB and the US for diagnostics and then expecting treatment from our medical system. To the NDP mind, this was "cheating". In reality, it messed with the government rationing system. The long waiting times for doctors appointments, specialists, diagnostics and treatments are specifically designed to weed out enough patients to prevent a total collapse of the medical system.

The Danny Williams and the Douglas crowd will never admit that the system is substandard. They can afford to be ignorant.

Posted by: LC Bennett at February 23, 2010 2:37 PM

I get what you are saying, but I don't know what you would have had him done differently all the same.

Not one of us would have chosen the rib breaking surgery with longer recovery over a little cut under the arm.

I'm not sure how big a champion of public health care Danny Williams has been in the past, however at that moment and since that moment he surely is aware of the benefits of two-tiered health care.

Perhaps instead of being angry we should use this opportunity to write to him and urge him to push for privatization of some aspects of Canadian healthcare.

I think he'd be as good, if not immensely better than a lot of us at getting his point across. Perhaps he is the right person at the right time to get some real change done in this country.

Posted by: Steven Burton at February 23, 2010 2:42 PM

Oh Danny Boy it is not that you chose to look after yourself. Would I be able to own Critical Care insurance in your Province? Is it not illegal? Why?

Posted by: Speedy at February 23, 2010 2:43 PM

First of all:
"He said he spoke with and provided his medical information to a leading cardiac surgeon in New Jersey who is also from Newfoundland and Labrador"
interesting, don't you think?

Second, his surgery sounds like it was done through a laparoscope, very common in Canada now. My guess is he had the choice of Edmonton or Miami, and Miami was less politically touchy!

Someone should do a tally of these hypocrites:
Williams
Stronach
Bouchard
Bourassa
Chretien

Posted by: Norman at February 23, 2010 2:44 PM

Why the beef? Danny Williams is only doing what every public personality in Canada would do!

Canadians are the stupidest people in the world! They allow their elected politicians to take them for granted and treat them like crap.

Suck it up or take an action to try to make a difference.

What Canada needs is a REAL CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT that is an activist organization independent of the CPC.


Posted by: Sparky at February 23, 2010 2:46 PM

The Canadian healthcare racket works very well for unions - does it not?

Posted by: Lorenzo at February 23, 2010 2:49 PM

Mr. Burton, the point is the rest of us don't have the option of heading off to get the easier option, we have to stand in line, get the bone breaker, then suffer the weeks of recovery. And why couldn't he have had it done somewhere in Canada? Oops that might mean jumping the queue.

Posted by: Rick Rae at February 23, 2010 3:02 PM

'My health, my choice'. But our government doesn't allow us to say: 'my health, my choice'.

We can't, unless we are wealthy, choose to go to the US. We can't choose a private clinic here.

Our health care system is not free - and how many times have we heard people spouting such nonsense - but is a prime taxpayer burden. AND, we have no choice but to use it, with its inadequate funding, its long waits, its services available only in select places.

Williams comment should be the slogan of the anti-Obama Health Care in the US: 'my health, my choice'.

Posted by: ET at February 23, 2010 3:07 PM

I'd certainly like to hear, face to face so to speak, that the less invasive surgery ISN'T available in Canada...anywhere in Canada.
I'm guessing he didn't want to get caught queue jumping; going to Miami on his own dime would be seen as less objectionable. Hell, people are going out of the country regularly, for surgery.
http://www.medical-tourism-india.com/heart_surgery_india.htm

Posted by: DaninVan at February 23, 2010 3:10 PM

"Mr. Burton, the point is the rest of us don't have the option of heading off to get the easier option"

Well, no, that's not quite true. You are no more prevented by law from pursuing this option than Danny is.

You really mean one of two things: either you cannot afford the easier option or you just don't want to pay for it.

Posted by: JJM at February 23, 2010 3:11 PM

It's not even that Danny Williams went to the US for care. It's the "good enough for me but not for thee" attitude that angers me. He is no fool in seeing discrepancies in the system he supports for others. Why should someone wait for an MRI because a politician thinks he should?

Posted by: Osumashi Kinyobe at February 23, 2010 3:12 PM

Norman @ 2:44, you forgot Taliban Jack.

Lorenzo @ 2:49, you got a bullseye with that comment!

Have to agree with Colin.

Posted by: Ken (Kulak) at February 23, 2010 3:12 PM

ET: ... and it is against the law to purchase private health insurance in some provinces.

By the way, does anyone here know of a single politician or public personality who has languished on a waiting list in Canada?

Posted by: Cjunk at February 23, 2010 3:13 PM

So in Canada it is illegal to spend your own money to buy your own health care

So in Canada it is illegal to sell or buy health care insurance.


So in Canada, we export jobs and money to the evil 'mericans by forcing our citizens, like Danny boy, to skip the lines here and spend our money there.


I'm gobsmacked Taliban Jack is not protesting exporting of high paying unionized jobs to The Great Satan.

Posted by: Fred at February 23, 2010 3:23 PM

Pity he wants to, no he does, deny the right of choice for us mere mortal Canadians.

"My Heart! My Choice!" should be used as a rallying cry for all who want to legalize private medicine and medical insurance, and remove the state obligation.

Posted by: Robert of Ottawa at February 23, 2010 3:27 PM

Even if you have the money to purchase health care in the US, you have to be healthy enough to get there. That's the real ugly of the Tommy Douglas health care system - by the time you realize you're just a body in a ward waiting for your clock to wind down, there's no where else to go. They made sure of that.

Posted by: Kate at February 23, 2010 3:42 PM

So Tommy D's daughter and grandson are BIG medicare supporters? Last time I checked Shirley Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland live in L.A. where they don't use Canadian medicare. I'm pretty sure Shirley's divorce settlement from Donald and Kief's paycheque from "24" make them ineligible for California medicaid and US medicare. Real easy to support a bad system for the sake of Tommy D's legacy when they do run the risk of having to depend on it.

Posted by: norm at February 23, 2010 4:02 PM

Obviously Danny wins the hypocrite of the year award and is a strong runner up for hypocrite of the decade.

I found it interesting that the cardiac surgeon advising him was from Newfoundland but now practicing in NJ. Why is that Danny?

The surgery Williams had done could have been performed at St. Pauls hospital in Vancouver and it's been available there for over 10 years. There are also some extremely skilled cardiac surgeons in Vancouver. The only problem if he'd have gone to Vancouver he would probably have to share a room with an HIV+ hooker with endocarditis; such an experience would be far too upsetting to a man of his stature. Much nicer to go to Florida where he'd have a nice private hotel type room with all the amenities that an important politician requires and, most importantly, no contact with the great mass of unwashed smelly patients that crowd Canadian hospitals.

Is the economic situation in Newfoundland the result of everyone who has any brains or drive having left that place?

Posted by: loki at February 23, 2010 4:19 PM

I'm surprised that some enterprising MSM reporter hasn't bothered to dig up the facts re which provincial governments might have denied budget funding to proceed with likely submitted proposals for setting up similar heart surgery centres here. Bet the documents would make for fascinating reading on how to fob off or smother medical innovation while at the same time fast forwarding every bureaucratic whim imaginable in the medical maladministrative apparatus.

Posted by: Sgt Lejaune at February 23, 2010 4:21 PM

What? He didn't go to Cuba? Where they have the best DAMN health care system in the world!!

Posted by: RFC at February 23, 2010 4:49 PM

Mark Steyn is all over this:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDM3YzQyYTU0N2UzN2U5NWYxYzE5ODE3NTRjMDNiMGE=

Posted by: Frank V at February 23, 2010 4:53 PM

"Last time I checked Shirley Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland live in L.A. where they don't use Canadian medicare."

I think it's safe to say they probably have an upscale private medical plan.

Posted by: JJM at February 23, 2010 4:59 PM

Many posters blindly supporting William's right to go to the US on the CBC comments are missing the point.

No one would deny Danny Williams the right to get the best medical care he could afford but as the PREMIER of a province he has been outspoken in stating Canada has the best health care system and damning the American system yet when his health is threatened he, of course, goes where he can get the best care, to the US, though Canada has excellent world class doctors right here that do the same operation.

As an example of public/private medical we have the excellent Shouldice Clinic in Toronto, a private hospital treating only hernias yet fully covered by the OHIP card, that is world renowned and I went there for my operation and met people from around the globe. This one hospital brings in millions of dollars to Canada. Another hypocrite who fights "two tiered" treatment all the time, Jack Layton, went there. Imagine if we had dedicated private hospitals, as France does, fully covered by our medical cards for hips, knees etc. for prompt, specialized care. Americans would begin to come here.

Yet politicians like Williams refuse to allow us regular Canadians this option and that should be the real focus of his medical treatment. He should be now leading the charge to implement public/private care in Canada. What happens if the US goes to government full Medicare and this choice that Williams made maybe no longer there?

Posted by: Dave at February 23, 2010 5:01 PM

Well at least it was one less Newfie on the dole.

Posted by: Eskimo at February 23, 2010 5:04 PM

"The Canadian health care system would collapse without the US system for a back-up."

You know, I went back over the comments and realized that the very first one posted by "the bear" was resoundingly true in its simplicity.

Posted by: JJM at February 23, 2010 5:05 PM

I don't quite follow you there, Dave.

If you were able to go to the Shouldice Clinic, how does this prove "regular Canadians" are denied this option?

Posted by: JJM at February 23, 2010 5:09 PM

Well at least it was one less Newfie on the dole.
Posted by: Eskimo at February 23, 2010 5:04 PM

But Eskimo, he went south and the taxpayer paid for it, so I think that may contradict your statement.

Posted by: FREE at February 23, 2010 5:19 PM

JJM as I have been told when I asked this question years ago the Shouldice Clinic, started in 1945, is only allowed to remain because it is grandfathered. No other private hospital like it would be allowed to open today.

Posted by: Dave at February 23, 2010 5:21 PM

"But Eskimo, he went south and the taxpayer paid for it, so I think that may contradict your statement."

Let's not spread false information now.

Williams paid for his procedure himself.

Posted by: JJM at February 23, 2010 5:31 PM

Loki, Had he used a Canadian surgeon, such as in Vancouver, he would have been forced, politically, to wait in line.

Waiting in line, of course, is for the mere sups, not for those wise philosopher kings of socialism.

Posted by: Robert of Ottawa at February 23, 2010 5:36 PM

Robert of Ottawa - would he have been "forced, politically, to wait in line"? I doubt that. Skipping to another Province might have made him look bad but going to Florida has to make him look a whole lot worse.

Very very important scumbags like Danny Williams get preferential treatment in Canada. I simply do not believe that he would have been kept waiting.

He panicked, exposing his hypocrisy, and if Newfoundland has twelve brain-cells to rub together his political career is over. So I kinda like how this turned out.

Posted by: Black Mamba at February 23, 2010 6:00 PM

Willims mentions "God" twice in this piece. Can we presume he is a Christian? Obviously he thinks this is what Jesus would have done. Maybe he just believes in Dree?

Posted by: larben at February 23, 2010 6:07 PM

> and if Newfoundland has twelve brain-cells
> to rub together

...which is the crux of the matter. They don't. All of the working brain cells were exported to Fort Mac, and we're not returning them.

Posted by: Sean at February 23, 2010 6:12 PM

You know, it's weird, Sean (who takes very beautiful photographs). Individually, Williams excepted no doubt, I like Newfies. I'll probably be knifed in an alley for saying this, but on average I'll take a Newfie over a Maritimer (they don't consider themselves Martimers) any old day.

But politically they couldn't be more passive and clueless. They're lovely people, but they don't seem to think like citizens.

Posted by: Black Mamba at February 23, 2010 6:24 PM

Danny Williams just said the truth: I'm a big important dude so I get to do what I want and you rubes get to pay for it. So shut up and get back to work paying those taxes, goofs.

I love it when politicians come right out and say the truth. Cuts right through all the smoke and mirrors so even the useful idiots can see they're getting hosed.

Notice the lack of trolls posting?

Posted by: The Phantom at February 23, 2010 6:56 PM

My body, my choice.

Right?

Healthcare on demand is a human right.

Right?

Funny how the Progs are afraid to get into this discussion. They've been using such slogans as "my body, my choice" for decades, but now that it's being used in the context of healthcare in general, it's hard to find any who dare to either agree or disagree. Fascinating...

Posted by: Canadian Sentinel at February 23, 2010 7:03 PM

Who said something to the effect that no sitting Canadian politician should be allowed to seek health care outside of Canada?

... or was it "You can't keep your little trotters in the trough and seek medical attention outside of the trough"?

Posted by: IanB at February 23, 2010 7:15 PM

While at least we can rest assured that Canadian healthcare is better than what Cubans get in Cuba's supposedly great system...

http://therealcuba.com/Page10.htm

...sometimes people do die in Canada because the system simply can't save them, period. It simply cannot. Even life-threatening conditions go undetected, undiagnosed and untreated for so long (due to rationing) that by the time the "care" is finally available, it's simply too late. Just a few months can make the difference between treatable and terminal.

Trust me. I know. Seen it firsthand. No one can possibly convince me that I didn't see the truth with my own eyes.

DIAGNOSIS: CRITICAL

Only extreme, revolutionary reform can save it now.

No more tinkering. No more shovelling billions more into the unions' pockets to end strikes.

Revolution is the solution.

"Two-tier" is not a dirty word anymore!

Posted by: Canadian Sentinel at February 23, 2010 7:16 PM

"Danny Williams just said the truth: I'm a big important dude so I get to do what I want and you rubes get to pay for it."

C'mon now. This cost taxpayers nothing.

Williams paid for his procedure himself, including all his travel expenses.

It's the optics of his decision to go private in the US that's in question here.

Stick to facts.

Posted by: JJM at February 23, 2010 7:30 PM

"This was my heart, my choice and my health," Williams

Yes Danny but for everyone else its tough luck or boo hoo eh?
Not you though Danny. Your special. Its to bad Canadians have to live with your kinds (Bureaucratic elite) hypocrisy.

Posted by: Revnant Dream at February 23, 2010 7:47 PM

Dave wrote, ". . . the Shouldice Clinic, started in 1945, is only allowed to remain because it is grandfathered. No other private hospital like it would be allowed to open today."

Really? Henry Morgentaler has a number of private clinics, which also carry out a single, surgical procedure at taxpayer expense.

Politics trumps both health and care all the time.

Posted by: lookout at February 23, 2010 7:55 PM

Danny needs to drink a little more Red Whine.


the man made is fortune on Newfoundland duff sitting. the feds put in a cable network to every outport so they could all sit on their duffs watching tv and collecting poggie.Danny Millions cashed in on the collective laziness that causes heart problems.

Posted by: cal2 at February 23, 2010 7:56 PM

Danny made Fox news! Everything Danny mused about PMSH being, in the video, is exactly what Danny himself really IS. And he has proved it through his acts, backed up by words. The Troika has lost another ally.

Posted by: Jema 54 at February 23, 2010 8:17 PM

JJM
"The Canadian health care system would collapse without the US system for a back-up."

Yup, he tagged onto the real issue behind the Wizard of Ottawa inspired Curtain of a heath system. That Canadians have been deluded into thinking has no strings attached. With clever elegance. The bear opens up the vista of how Dependant we rally are on the US for health & military. For even social medicine to survive in its present degenerate form here. Its become such a vampire.

Danny only represents the Reptile like attitudes of the Entitled Elite. How they view themselves in relation to productive folks. EBD had a great little saying to cover that.

"My health, my choice. Your health, my choice."

Yes this is our fault as well. Start talking to your Dr.s, politicians & the guy at the grocery if we want change.
Educate yourself against the inevitable BS avalanche by the Entitled.
JMO

Posted by: Revnant Dream at February 23, 2010 8:20 PM

JJM: "It's the optics of his decision to go private in the US that's in question here.

Stick to facts."

Oh, really? Only about optics? As a leading member of Canada's political class Danny Williams has systematically worked to prevent Canadians from obtaining in Canada what he didn't hesitate for a moment to obtain for himself in the US.

I don't know how you can call it "optics" when one politician eviscerates another in a crass defence of single-tier health care, ensures the average person's reliance on a faulty government-run system, and then demonstrates that in reality he has nothing whatsoever against two-tier health care and private medicine when it's *his* health that's at stake.

How many deaths has he caused by actively denying Canadians what he has turned out to be in favour of and to have benefited from? For how many people has he caused a deterioration in their quality of life by guaranteeing them a place on a long waiting list?

Optics my ass.

Posted by: mj at February 23, 2010 8:35 PM

"[Williams] demonstrates that in reality he has nothing whatsoever against two-tier health care and private medicine when it's *his* health that's at stake."

QED.

As I stated, it's the optics.

Posted by: JJM at February 23, 2010 8:52 PM

Lookout, then why don't private hospitals open everywhere if there is nothing to stop them? Shouldice is a medium size hospital with 12 full time surgeons and 89 beds. I am not aware of any hospitals this size fully private so help me out here. Morgentaler's clinic is just up the street and is a small unit.

Posted by: Dave at February 23, 2010 9:14 PM

Something to ponder:

OK, so health care is a "sacred trust" and thus a two-tier system cannot be tolerated.

Isn't education a "sacred trust" too?

So why do the provinces tolerate private fee-paying schools and academies?

Just askin'.

Posted by: JJM at February 23, 2010 9:25 PM

What does it say about the MSM when no one asks DW:

" assuming that you indeed have the right to seek whatever medical care you see fit why do you support making it against the law for canadians to provide it?"

the msm are idiots or accomplices or both.

Posted by: Gord Tulk at February 23, 2010 9:37 PM

Even if you have the money to purchase health care in the US, you have to be healthy enough to get there. That's the real ugly of the Tommy Douglas health care system - by the time you realize you're just a body in a ward waiting for your clock to wind down, there's no where else to go. They made sure of that.

What are you all whining about?
The public system is inadequate? Get your dear leader to reallocate discretionary funding. Start with kicking your rural conservative welfare bum friends off the
gravy train. You want private healthcare? Run with that in the next election.
The angry right teabagging fringe believes in democracy, don't you?
As long as Williams is paying his fair share of taxes to support the public system, where he goes for his healthcare is up to him.

Posted by: phil at February 23, 2010 9:38 PM

Phil: So should private healthcare be illegal in Canada?

I and a lot of other conservatives aren't arguing against government funded healthcare we are arguing that like every other enterprise you can name, a deregulated privately owned and operated SYSTEM is the most efficient way of providing that care. The reason why the unions and othe vested interests oppose private providers being able to operate is that they know the current government controlled entities can't compete -even after they pay some of the profits to shareholders and half of those profits in taxes.

Posted by: Gord Tulk at February 23, 2010 10:03 PM

"As long as Williams is paying his fair share of taxes to support the public system, where he goes for his healthcare is up to him."

Just as long as it's not in Canada. Right, Phil?

Posted by: EBD at February 23, 2010 10:20 PM

JJM: Selective quotation doesn't warrant a triumphant QED. Let me explain again.

"Optics" is another way of saying "appearances," and "appearances" are opposed to "reality." Preventable deaths and deteriorating health are reality, and their near-criminal pointlessness is what Danny Williams' actions past and present are bringing to our attention.

This is not about optics or "the way things look." It's about a politician's power to prevent people from saving their lives or from living healthier and better lives, even though his actions prove that he has nothing against the measures that would enable people to save their lives or live better lives.

Optics?

Posted by: mj at February 23, 2010 10:21 PM

What a hypocritical-elitist-loudmouth- Ahole, Newfoundland votes for this pr*ck?

Posted by: claude at February 23, 2010 10:45 PM

As I've said before, I don't expect NFLD, with a few hundred thousand people at most, to have too many people with lazy heart valves each year. A trained surgeon would be twiddling his thumbs most of the time, which isn't exactly what I'd want him to be doing if I was his next patient.

But others have pointed out this operation is available in Vancouver, and I would have to think in Toronto as well. There are already well-established procedures for out-of-province patients, and it is not a case of "jumping the line" - each patient is triaged, and scheduled accordingly. It's not like Williams would have had to sit in a ward bed for six weeks, waiting for surgery; he could have flown in the day before, had his surgery, and recuperated a bit there before flying home for further observation. No uproar - at least, no defensible uproar - and no smears.

But he chose to flaunt his privilege in front of all Canadians, and then wonders why we feel slighted. What a tool.

Posted by: KevinB at February 23, 2010 10:47 PM

In the public healthcare racket, a patient is a burden to the system due to fixed budgets. In a private healthcare system, a patient is a profit opportunity. Which system is going to deliver better care?

mmm ... I wonder

Posted by: Lorenzo at February 23, 2010 10:55 PM

Lorenzo: precisely.

Posted by: Gord Tulk at February 23, 2010 11:16 PM

If Danny had not gone out of his way to smear PMSH and the Conservatives for their apprehensions about the Tommy Douglas Albatross (Medicare) hanging around the necks of all Canadians, if Danny had supported PMSH as the Prime Minister had supported NFLD against the greed of Quebec and the Feds re: offshore oil rights and Churchill Falls hydro; then I would not be disgusted. If Danny had some sort of 'deal', at the time, with the Liberanos then he is worse than disgusting, I was shocked when he attacked the Prime Minister; now I have no pity for him as he will be forced to eat crow after he recouperates. It will be a 'learning lesson' for a guy who does not seem to know that 'pleasing your enemies does not make them turn into your friends'. (Kate)

Posted by: Jema 54 at February 23, 2010 11:47 PM

Lily Ledbetter wrote:

"If you asked anyone they'd swear that their health care was free"....

Well, sure. Isn't that what Ujjal Dosanjh told Americans?

Posted by: chutzpahticular at February 24, 2010 12:00 AM

As long as Williams is paying his fair share of taxes to support the public system, where he goes for his healthcare is up to him.
Posted by: phil at February 23, 2010 9:38 PM

Ok, then, Phil, I'll take you at your word here. Therefore, if public policy in Canada takes us in the direction of allowing private health insurance, clinics, and hospitals to operate parallel to the public system, I expect nary a word of criticism out of you.

Posted by: Colin from Mission B.C. at February 24, 2010 12:21 AM

> Individually, Williams excepted no doubt,
> I like Newfies.

I've little experience with the Newfies still living in Newfoundland beyond the inordinate amount of my tax dollars that they suck up. The Newfies that I've met living in Alberta, by and large, are amazing people. Friendly, spirited, and they've got a work ethic second to none. A good deal of the prosperity that Alberta experienced during the last boom is attributable to this bunch, and we're glad to have them.

Posted by: Sean at February 24, 2010 3:21 AM

A Wee Danny Shanty

I'se da b'y dat builds da boat
I'se da b'y dat sails her
I'se da b'y dat 'bandons me ship
And let's the others bail 'er.

Posted by: Jamie MacMaster at February 24, 2010 6:56 AM

Foxnews had a nice little segment on Danny Williams this morning. Ripped him nice and proper and went as far as calling what he did as obscene. I agree with them. If he wasn't a premier and one of the staunchest defenders or out single payer system often invoking St. Tommy's name in his speeches I wouldn't care.

The fact he is the premier of Newfoundland and one of the biggest backers of the single payer system makes him the biggest hypocrite in Canada at this moment.

Posted by: Blackroc at February 24, 2010 9:28 AM

Not that there were no other sources for this.
Yesturday I've sent the address of this post and the comments to Hannity.

Posted by: Lev at February 24, 2010 2:08 PM

Danny Williams, Class A Douche


http://www.thetelegram.com/index.cfm?sid=329533&sc=88

Posted by: Danny Sucks at February 25, 2010 12:30 AM

I'd would wager that old danny boy didn.t pay a dime for the procedure. In his mind, it is free medi-care.

Posted by: mvf at February 25, 2010 1:34 AM
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