Explaining Canada's medicare
A new friend of mine, who is distraught over the bureaucratic mishandling of her elderly mother's needs in the Calgary Health Region, asked me for information on how our government monopoly medicare system was established. This is what I wrote to her:
Canada's most socialist province, Saskatchewan, produced Tommy Douglas, who became a socialist premier there. He pushed government medicare, which became the law in the early 60's.
Medical care is a provincial responsibility. Trudeau, whose early writings and conduct make it clear that he was a communist sympathizer, wanted to consolidate power in Ottawa, and more particularly in the Prime Minister's Office. Since the federal government had more taxation revenue than the provinces, a deal was made between Ottawa and the provinces, whereby Ottawa would fund 50% of medicare by payments to the provinces, in return for which the provinces agreed to the Canada Health Act, which gave control of medicare to Ottawa.
Over the years Ottawa has chiseled its way out of the deal, and now funds only 14% of medicare, while still controlling medicare and maintaining the government monopoly by way of the Canada Health Act.
The Liberal Party has positioned itself for a long time as the champion of medicare, and has spread lies and used phony scare tactics to get votes, claiming that the other parties would destroy medicare, and Canadians would die of neglect because they would not be able to afford "American style" medical care.
The fact is that Canadians are dying every day because under government administration our medicare system is providing poorer and poorer service.
Because of the long and relentless campaign by the Liberal party, Canadians have been indoctrinated with the idea that government monopoly medicare is the only way to go. In fact the only other countries in the world that have government monopoly systems like ours are North Korea and Cuba, both of them totalitarian dictatorships.
At present, the Liberals, and NDP both have a dogmatic belief in the government monopoly medicare system. The Conservatives under Harper are stuck with the system for now because Canadians are so brainwashed about it that to make a change would produce hysterical reactions from the media and public.
Fortunately both Quebec and Alberta are working on new systems to improve the service to Canadians combining public and private medicare. It will, however, take a long time for the system to improve.Probably when the baby boomers start needing medical service and find how lousy it is for them, they will wake up to the fact that an alternative system is needed.
Government monopoly medicare is just one of the damaging legacies of the Liberal Party, which is the most corrupt political organization this country has ever seen. It is not just that they are corrupt. They are incompetent too, and have either stolen or utterly wasted billions of taxpayer's dollars in the past 13 years. All of this money, if left in the pockets of the taxpayers, could be used by them to get the health care they want and need, and I think you will see the Conservatives, if given a chance, moving in that direction.
Many arguments are thrown up to preserve the present government monopoly on medicare. One is that a lot of doctors will opt out of working in the public system, because working in a private system will give them better pay, and therefore a private system should not be allowed. I don't think that will happen. The situation we have now is that many Canadian trained doctors leave Canada for the US, because they can earn more there. If the opportunity existed in Canada for them to earn more, I think most of them would stay here, rather than pull up roots to go to the US. We would thus have more doctors, and the current extreme shortage would be alleviated.
Surely all educated and experienced people must realize, if they do any thinking at all, that to add a thick layer of government administration to the delivery of medical services has to add a great deal to the cost of delivering those services.
You have seen the Calgary Health Region office. All the salaries of the people in that large building, which services only Calgary, take away from the dollars available for real health services.
That's the way I see it.
Brian
Canada's most socialist province, Saskatchewan, produced Tommy Douglas, who became a socialist premier there. He pushed government medicare, which became the law in the early 60's.
Medical care is a provincial responsibility. Trudeau, whose early writings and conduct make it clear that he was a communist sympathizer, wanted to consolidate power in Ottawa, and more particularly in the Prime Minister's Office. Since the federal government had more taxation revenue than the provinces, a deal was made between Ottawa and the provinces, whereby Ottawa would fund 50% of medicare by payments to the provinces, in return for which the provinces agreed to the Canada Health Act, which gave control of medicare to Ottawa.
Over the years Ottawa has chiseled its way out of the deal, and now funds only 14% of medicare, while still controlling medicare and maintaining the government monopoly by way of the Canada Health Act.
The Liberal Party has positioned itself for a long time as the champion of medicare, and has spread lies and used phony scare tactics to get votes, claiming that the other parties would destroy medicare, and Canadians would die of neglect because they would not be able to afford "American style" medical care.
The fact is that Canadians are dying every day because under government administration our medicare system is providing poorer and poorer service.
Because of the long and relentless campaign by the Liberal party, Canadians have been indoctrinated with the idea that government monopoly medicare is the only way to go. In fact the only other countries in the world that have government monopoly systems like ours are North Korea and Cuba, both of them totalitarian dictatorships.
At present, the Liberals, and NDP both have a dogmatic belief in the government monopoly medicare system. The Conservatives under Harper are stuck with the system for now because Canadians are so brainwashed about it that to make a change would produce hysterical reactions from the media and public.
Fortunately both Quebec and Alberta are working on new systems to improve the service to Canadians combining public and private medicare. It will, however, take a long time for the system to improve.Probably when the baby boomers start needing medical service and find how lousy it is for them, they will wake up to the fact that an alternative system is needed.
Government monopoly medicare is just one of the damaging legacies of the Liberal Party, which is the most corrupt political organization this country has ever seen. It is not just that they are corrupt. They are incompetent too, and have either stolen or utterly wasted billions of taxpayer's dollars in the past 13 years. All of this money, if left in the pockets of the taxpayers, could be used by them to get the health care they want and need, and I think you will see the Conservatives, if given a chance, moving in that direction.
Many arguments are thrown up to preserve the present government monopoly on medicare. One is that a lot of doctors will opt out of working in the public system, because working in a private system will give them better pay, and therefore a private system should not be allowed. I don't think that will happen. The situation we have now is that many Canadian trained doctors leave Canada for the US, because they can earn more there. If the opportunity existed in Canada for them to earn more, I think most of them would stay here, rather than pull up roots to go to the US. We would thus have more doctors, and the current extreme shortage would be alleviated.
Surely all educated and experienced people must realize, if they do any thinking at all, that to add a thick layer of government administration to the delivery of medical services has to add a great deal to the cost of delivering those services.
You have seen the Calgary Health Region office. All the salaries of the people in that large building, which services only Calgary, take away from the dollars available for real health services.
That's the way I see it.
Brian
posted by Brian Purdy, Calgary at 3:13 p.m.
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