Okay, here’s the bottom line: I am going to support whichever political party that promises me a two-tier health care system in place of the dismal, Soviet-style government health monopoly this country is currently suffering under. I hope that Jack Layton’s assertion that the Liberals and Conservatives are launching a "stealth campaign" to bring in private health care is true, as it gives me hope that things will improve once that happens.
The socialists’ obsession with keeping health care "public", i.e. under a government monopoly, is bizarre in the extreme, given that the wheels are falling off this miscarriage at an alarming rate. Why would anyone in their right mind want more of the same, unless they aren’t in their right mind or they’ve never had a serious medical issue for which they’ve had to stand in line for treatment?
I think that Jack and his fellow NDPers should be given their wish and be relegated to having to rely on the current health care system. I even think we should grant Jack another wish and sink an extra twenty or thirty billion dollars into the system, just to prove it won’t make a difference.
But the rest of us, who still have a semblance of functioning intellect, would like an alternative to having to wait five months for eye surgery or eight months for an arthroscopic knee procedure. and while we’re on the subject of eyes, in Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty recently de-listed certain treatments involving the eyes, including an annual eye examination, among others.
So, Jack, my guess is that your rant about a "stealth campaign" that will result in "profiteering" is just that, a rant designed to appeal to the shall we say, less than gifted union types whose support you’re desperately seeking. In reality you can’t possibly mean any of the things you’re saying.
If like Jack wishes, we do eliminate all private providers of health care, then it will no longer be possible for men to be tested for prostate cancer, as the PSa test designed to detect that disease is currently not covered in some Canadian provinces; nor is physiotherapy, which is a medical necessity, following many surgical procedures; nor is chiropractic treatment, which is very helpful in treating spinal and thoracic problems in a non-invasive manner. How about de-listing abortions that are sought to terminate an inconvenient pregnancy, Jack, instead of tests designed to detect cancer in men?
as for profiteering, if Jack and his union goons believe that people are in health care for altruistic reasons, then they are deluded. People become doctors, nurses and medical technicians because it’s possible to make a good living at it, so long as we can keep people like Jack from fooling with the system. The idea that free health care should be a basic human right is laughable. In case you didn’t take Economics 101 at university, Jack, the word "free" is a word for something that has no value. "Free health care" is valueless, which is why our own health care system is in the state it’s in.
Personally, I want to be able to choose where I get my health care. I don’t know why, but I’m just not comfortable with the idea of having some incompetent government drone making decisions about what treatments I can and cannot have.
The Canada Health act is now over 20 years old. It has taken us from a system that was the envy of the world to a system that’s become a joke. The best thing we could do for the government health monopoly is to let it die a quick death. Otherwise many Canadians will be forced to die a slow death.