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The Alliance of Seniors to Protect Canada's Social Programs- Founded in 1993, the Alliance was established to promote social justice, the democratic process and the preservation of the fundamental principles of Canadian Life.

Our Speakers Bureau will be pleased to address your group on various health issues e,g, Primary Health Care, Long Term Care etc.

Medicare, the program most cherished by Canadians and, in particular, by seniors, is under attack since the recent decision by the Supreme Court that struck down Quebec's ban on private health insurance based on a challenge by Dr. Jacques Chaoulli of Quebec. (It should be noted that Dr. Chaoulli has long battled Canada's restrictions on private health care, only to be rebuffed twice in two lower courts of law, the Quebec Superior Court and the Quebec Court of Appeals).

Since the Supreme Court's ruling, the call for two-tier medicine has become loud and strident. The snipers against public health care have been augmented by powerful lobbying groups. At a two-day conference in Vancouver last November 300 participants, including physicians, insurers and lawyers, paid between $1150 and $1300 each to hear speaker after speaker extol the "virtues" of two-tier medicine.

Alberta has been moving in that direction for some time and is now using the Supreme Court's decision to defy the Canada Health Act and justify its promotion of what it calls "Parallel Private Care." Philippe Couillard, Quebec's Minister of Health, clams that he intends to comply with the Supreme Court's ruling, despite its rejection by the opposition Parti Quebecois.

Well, let's take a closer look at the Supreme Court's ruling. First, we should recognize that it was far from a unanimous decision with only 7 justices sitting out of a full complement of 9 justices. Then, the results of the final vote was a slim 4 to 3 in favour. Let us also consider that the Supreme Court justices come mostly from a socio-economic segment of our society that, despite a professed objectivity, might have an inclination to prefer the option of a private health plan. Furthermore, let us note that since the Court's decision, two new justices with more liberal leanings have been appointed to the Supreme Court. Should Quebec choose to re-argue the case, the results may well be quite different.

However, according to Patrick J. Monahan, Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, even the present decision allows for the option of improving medicare rather than abandoning it. He states: "The judgement was quite clear that it is open to a provincial government to establish a universal, publicly funded health insurance system and to prohibit the purchase of private health insurance in order to prevent the emergence of a parallel private system. However, the Court went on to insist that if the government does elect to create a public monopoly in the funding of medically necessary health services, then it must provide health care when it is needed in a reasonably timely way." While small steps to reduce wait time for cancer, heart surgery, joint replacement and diagnostic imaging have been taken by Ottawa and some provinces, much more remains to be done, and this is where the emphasis should be placed.

We must counteract the massive, well-funded campaign for two-tier medicine launched by Dr. Brian Day, President of the Independent Medical Clinics Association, the right-wing Fraser Institute, and the Canadian Medical Association. We must also expose the deception of Premier Ralph Klein and Preston Manning of Alberta, both of whom support for-profit private health clinics under the guise of "freedom of choice," ignoring the fact that only the rich can exercise that choice.

As I wrote in a Letter to the Editor in the September, 2005, issue of this publication: "Two-tier, for-profit health care will not give us more doctors, nurses or hospital beds, or more chemotherapy, catscan or MRI technicians. On the contrary, private clinics would only siphon off present health care professionals to service the upper echelon of society at the expense of the majority -- and at a much greater cost to over-all health services."

Make no mistake about it. Private health care is a big, profitable business. Medical clinics are not necessarily owned by doctors but by businessmen who view it as a good investment and operate it on the basic business principle of maximizing profits, sometimes at the expense of patient care. It is interesting to note that Mr. Don Copeman of Vancouver, who plans to open 37 private health clinics across Canada, with a sign-up fee of $1200 per patient, will be offering and charging for services not covered by Canada's health plan, while still exercising the privilege of charging provincial health plans for publicly insured medical treatment. This practice of "double dipping" should not be permitted.

Former Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow, who headed a Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada, reacted to the Supreme Court's decision by stating that this could be the end of medicare in Canada as we know it and that it is a serious body blow to the future of Canada. Since according to Statistics Canada almost 20% of unattached seniors live below the poverty line and since seniors are the most frequent users of medicare, it is obvious that they would be the demographic group most affected.

The upcoming federal elections present us with an opportunity to question candidates on their commitment to Canada's Public Health Act and as to whether they whole-heartedly oppose all forms of two-tier, for profit medicine. We might also ask them what steps their party would take to reduce the wait time for urgent medical procedures.

Alliance of Seniors

to Protect Canada's Social Programs

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