Medicare, Canada’s gift to the world has been under attack now for over 25 years. It’s still standing and still works to varying degrees, but there are pressures on it from all sides. Mostly the big insurance and drug companies.
All you have to do is look to the US right now and watch how the interests of these mega corporations have pummelled the Obama government into the position it’s now taking of creating Medical Insurance Co-Ops instead of government run insurance for the 50 or so million of people there who have no insurance. L I N K
If you own a pet you can see the realities of having no insurance or medicare. Same with dentistry. When the focus changes from solving the issue to the money elements; (and many times these aren’t apparent) it impacts how a society evolves.
If you’ve saved a nest egg working for 30 years and a 4 day visit to emergency wipes that out the system isn’t working. That’s not happened in Canada (unless you need an experimental drug not covered by medicare) but it’s the direction that our system is being pushed.
When the head of the Canadian Medical Association essentially is calling for a two tiered system we are being turned on by our own doctors! L I N K
“His thoughts on the issue are already clear. Ouellet has been saying since his return that “a health-care revolution has passed us by,” that it’s possible to make wait lists disappear while maintaining universal coverage and “that competition should be welcomed, not feared.”
In other words, Ouellet believes there could be a role for private health-care delivery within the public system.”
There always be a place for private companies in health care Mr. Ouellet, but the concept of medicare lies in economy of scale with the province or country being the direct purchaser from the private service thus saving money.
Yes, doctors make more money in private systems, but we in Canada, at least up to date have chosen not to have a private system although elements are already functioning in parts of the country.
We as a society, as citizens, have to really start to look at the issues revolving around medicare. We can’t just accept what our politicans or medical associations tell us.
I bet almost everyone of you that’s read this either has first hand experience or have heard a story of someone who’s had a major problem or died from some sort of issue with the current system.
We need our doctors to pull together and remember that they are here to heal us as most of them do so well. We need to support nurses, and need to find real solutions to the medicare crisis facing Canada.
We’re now behind many countries who manage to do quite well with socialized medicine. We don’t want to have to go to Walmart to see a doctor like many are starting to do in the US. And if a doctor prescribes a treatment for us we want to actually recieve that treatment without having to write a big cheque which many can’t afford.
Jamie Gilcig – Editor – The Cornwall Free News
Editorials are the opinion of the writer only and do not represent the ownership of this paper, or its sponsors.
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