The campaign talk turned to health care this weekend. The Conservatives released a plan to guarantee patient waiting times and the NDP reiterated its position on universal, public health care.
According to the official Conservative platform, a Conservative government would maintain an entirely public health care system with universal access and abide by the Canada Health Act. Sounds fine. Stephen Harper announced a guaranteed maximum wait times, allowing for patients to seek treatment in another jurisdiction if their needs cannot be met locally. Not a bad idea, really.
Things were rolling along nicely, then a reporter asked Stephen Harper if he would seek treatment at a private health care facility if his wife were to have a painful, long wait for a procedure like a hip replacement. In response, he said that he would want his loved ones to receive the best possible treatment and he wouldn't rule out private, for-profit care. Harper, you lose again. First of all, you can't say things publicly that don't align with your party platform. If your party platform supports a public health care system, but you say you yourself might use a private health care system in a pinch, you look like a fool. Second, people are trying to figure out who you are, Harper, and you're not helping them. If you don't personally align with your party's official platform, then who are you? These unanswered questions will reinforce voters' fear of your leadership on election day.
Jack Layton opened a speech this past week by holding up a health card and a credit card side-by-side, saying that access to Canada's health system should be via a health card, not a credit card. A reporter asked him the same question as Harper, and Layton said he and Olivia would rather suffer than pay to jump to the front of the line. Perfect delivery.
I was recently having cocktails with some Americans. A fellow from Florida who went to school in Texas was talking about Denys Arcand's Les Invasions barbares and asked me if hospitals in Canada are as crowded as in the film. I said that there are some problems with the Canadian health care system, but that it's not as bad as in the film. The other American said that public health care is a nice thought, but it just can't work. I got kind of offended. In many Canadians, the subject of health care is pretty emotional, and as such, it's probably one of the most difficult things for politicians to dance around. That being said, I can't believe it's 2005 and we're still talking about guaranteed waiting times for patients. We've made a lot of progress recently in government, but the clock on health care is still stuck firmly in the past century.
4 Comments
1 Nicholas
Posted December 5, 2005 at 10:35 pmPermalink
And now it seems the election is all about money. All those nice surpluses in the past few years have the opposition chomping at the bit to spend the money. GST cuts, tax cuts, child care payments, income splitting ..... I'd like to see more substnace to the campaigns than just throwing money at the public to buy votes. It's a classic Ralph Klien move with his energy rebates right before elections and it's kind of patronizing so stop it polititians.
2 Murray
Posted December 6, 2005 at 10:42 pmPermalink
canada spends 9% of it's GDP on healthcare.
US spends 13%
what works again?
3 kashies
Posted December 11, 2005 at 7:54 pmPermalink
have you seen the ND Christmas ad that slams the liberals? i think that it is quite clever, but i am not sure how the new democrats are going to fair in this election. I am on pins and needles really.
i am glad that harper showed what he truly wants to do with healthcare, and i hope everyone hears about it!
i am personally disgusted by americans who think that the canadian system stinks. they are obviously not visiting their own hospitals.
i like the credit card vs. medicare card that Layton used. brilliant.
however, why did i have to pay 130 for healthcare every 3 months last year when i was working a job that basically paid minimum wage? i know it isn't a lot of money, but when you are as broke as some of us are, it fucking sucks. can't it just be completely free? is that a ridiculous thing to ask?
jan 23 i'm voting anne mclellan. i don't like her, but there is no way i am letting that bastard conservative in!
later babes
k
4 Jeremy
Posted December 11, 2005 at 10:28 pmPermalink
Yeah, Anne's riding is going to be a tight race.
Canadians and Americans just have entirely different views on healthcare. In the United States, health care is a commodity and everyone accepts that. You should see the benefits package my company gave me during my first day orientation: it is a fat book of financial figures and contractual terms for the various health care benefits I can choose from. And everyone talks about health care like that. Yeah, health care is a business just like anything else (even in Canada), but you don't really hear people talk refer to health care like that in day-to-day conversations.
The thing about the system in Canada is that it only covers basic stuff, and yes, varying province by province, you still have to pay health care premiums (although that seems strange in Alberta... why not divert oil money into entirely free health care? ah, I see, it's because more homeless people would flock to Alberta for the freebies. Ralph Klein would have a lot more homeless bashing to do.)