William Watson notes Canadians’ opinions are beginning to change on Medicare:
There’s a political party in this country, Mario Dumont’s Action democratique du Quebec, that is currently running — in a real election, in Canada’s most statist province — on a reformist platform in health care. It’s not a very detailed platform and Mr. Dumont might run away from it if he ever gets near power, but, for the time being at least, the program says:
– The Supreme Court’s Chaouilli decision was right: People should be allowed to spend their own money on their own health.
Shuttled around Saskatoon yesterday. A friend of mine brought in his Black Lab for tests as it was having hind leg problems. It was diagnosed yesterday with torn ligaments etc. and will undergo surgery today at the cost of $3000.
Ironically the dogs owner has been waiting for over a year for diagnosis on his own bicept which does not work, making him unable to pickup even a plate of spagetti with his one arm. While the muscle deteriorates and he slows down he is now on to the next phase of his medicare treatment. That being a 4 month and counting wait for an appointment with a neuro surgeon as other doctors feel this is caused by a pinched nerve.
Dog will be out of hospital in four days, my friend however will continue to wait.
God Bless Tommy Douglas !!!!!
I believe that Mario Dumont is the same Mario that used to post on ROL (Reform on line). He always posted logical and sensible bits. When he wrote that he would no longer be posting because he was going to form a new political party in Quebec we all wished him well but thought he was wasting his time. It seems we were thankfully wrong. I still like what he says.
Thank you Mario D! How ironic that Quebecers lead the way on this. I guess that because they’re further along the road to socialism they want to make a U-turn more than the rest of Canada.
Why can’t our medical system have as much choice as our educational system? We have publicly funded schools, but if you want, you can go to a private school. Why do Canadians have to go to a foreign country if they want to spend their own money on their health? Shouldn’t that discretionary money go to Canadian doctors at Canadian hospitals and clinics?
I get a large Guffaw every time I hear Stenpanie DeYawn go on about “sus-tain-a-beel-aty” when it was his government ( under Martin;s orders) who balanced the national deficit at the direct expense of Fed commitments to Health care transfers.
You want a “sus-tain-a-beel-aty” project DeYawn?…try repairing the damage you did to the Canadian public health system.
I would genuinely hope so, seanf!
Here’s to the hope that this wedge can be pounded so hard as to blow the door completely open on health care.
With the requierd down sizing of the public system to match budget cuts a defacto “private” paralell system has been operating for 10 years….specialists and nursing staff trimmed from hospital staff have gon on to buid specialty clinics which are on reference order to family MDs..they own the clinic and equipment and they bill the public system for the work done with virtually no charge ceiling…soind pretty much like a private enterprise to me with one billing customer.
The world saw that communism does not work.
Canada is based on capitalism. It works.
Centrists and statists have imposed the medicare system which is a communist system—central planning and no competition allowed.
We have all seen forever and a day that it does not work. We have given it more time, much more money, new hospitals, think tank sessions, study sessions ad nauseum, etc etc etc and it does not work.
When will Canadians call a spade a spade and label it a communist unworkable system and let capitalism compete. Let the customer decide where he wants to go for treatment.