Do we really have socialized medicine in Canada?

During the Maple Leaf Foods illness crisis, Minister of Health Tony Clement was schmoozing at the Democratic National Convention - and did not come home. Health Canada is told what to do by the FDA and Big Pharma - as Shiv Chopra's book, CORRUPT TO THE CORE, makes plain. In Ontario, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care budget is almost $40 billion dollars for this year alone - an amount that nearly equals the entire personal fortune of Bill Gates. That should break down to $2000 in health care for every person in Ontario. But because only 1/3 goes to actual patient care, Ontarians only get $650 or so of care. Ontario cannot afford $200 a month for a food allowance for mothers, children, the poor, disabled and elderly, but came up with about $500M over three years for Gardasil - a wart vaccine. And in some cities in Ontario, almost four out of ten people use walk-in clinics because they don't have physicians.

You are the taxpayer. You have a right to know what the Dickens is going on here!"

Comments

Submitted by Tigana on June 4, 2009 - 11:29am.

Topic was placed in wrong category - perhaps Michelle or another moderator can correct this. Thank you.

Submitted by Tigana on June 4, 2009 - 12:51pm.

The L Curve: Visualizing the numbers

http://www.lcurve.org/

Very useful site on income discrepancy. If you make $40K a year, you have (say) a deck of cards of money. This site lets you compare your wealth to that of the very rich - like Bill Gates, who have an Everest of money.

http://www.lcurve.org/millbill.htm [3]

Visualize - What is a million? What is a billion?

Submitted by Fidel on June 4, 2009 - 2:35pm.

Tigana wrote:

Jack Layton was explaining the idea of prevention as a cornerstone of health care to the Americans when he spoke at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in the US. The Yanks want to reduce health care costs, and Jack is telling them what the CCF and NDP knew decades ago - that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

They cant be healthy down thataway with neoconservative deregulation and emphasis on profits before people. How dumb it is to allow 70% of cattle feed to consist of chicken shit. Theyve got to start using their heads for higher purposes than just hat racks in the U.S. Good health and quality of life go together.

And we dont want hundreds of their limbo-low food and public safety standards foisted on Canadians with our Liberal-Tory governments' backroom deals for SPP.

Submitted by Tigana on June 4, 2009 - 4:18pm.

Fidel wrote:

Thank you, Fidel. I'd like to see Layton take care of Canadians, not preach south of the border. If Jack were following in Tommy Douglas' footsteps he would not have stopped after a ban of trans-fatty acids. He would have stopped Harper buddy Boessenkool, who lobbied a failed and dangerous US vaccine to market-naive Canucks, and done a lot more.

http://www.pharmalot.com/2007/03/merck_lobbyist_worked_for_cana/

Submitted by Fidel on June 4, 2009 - 4:34pm.

Liberals or Tories are equal the menace to socialized medicine in Canada.

Submitted by Tigana on June 4, 2009 - 5:09pm.

From the Pharmalot article - above:

"Ken Boessenkool last month registered to lobby the federal government on immunization policy on behalf of Merck Frosst Canada. And on Monday, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced in his budget statement that Canada will make $300 million available to provinces and territories to pay for the costs of vaccinating girls and young women against HPV. Is this a coincidence?" (April 2007)

Did the Harper government spend money that could have saved the CBC on a wart remedy?

Submitted by ennir on June 5, 2009 - 10:38am.

If we assume that what is preeented to us as a "health care system" is in fact so we have already been deluded by double speak, there is little in our system that promotes health and much that promotes medications that are often harmful and could be avoided altogether by changes in one's lifestyle.

Submitted by Ghislaine on June 5, 2009 - 11:33am.

I would say no, as many people cannot afford life-saving drugs. As well, dental care is quite expensive.

The long waiting lists for medically necessary care mean that in effect people do not have socialized medicine, as they are not getting the care that they need when they need it. More funding is needed to clear the backlog. (This is a huge issue to solve with requires more funding for doctor training and incentives to keep them here).

Submitted by Fidel on June 5, 2009 - 9:44pm.

NAFTA and socialized medicine dont go together.

Our two old line parties and socialized medicine dont't go together.

Democracy and autocratic rule dont go together.

Submitted by G. Muffin on June 5, 2009 - 9:53pm.

Ghislaine wrote:

I would say no, as many people cannot afford life-saving drugs.

I don't understand this. Aren't prescription drugs covered for those with low income across Canada? They are in BC.

Quote:

As well, dental care is quite expensive.

Seems to me in the good old days (early 70s) dental care was covered under basic medical. This is an especially stupid way to save money given what we now know about the link between gum disease and heart disease.

Submitted by Fidel on June 5, 2009 - 10:30pm.

Canadians Can't Afford Not to Have a Public Drug Plan

Quote:

Canada currently has a patchwork of private and public plans so full of holes that comprehensive drug coverage is not a reality for most. The result is an inequity reminiscent of the days before Medicare where people who can afford to pay for medications get them, and those who can't, don't. The report concludes that a universal public drug plan, cost-shared by federal and provincial/territorial governments and employers, and administered by provinces and territories, would result in better quality care and reduced costs.

In the words of Philip Lillies who lives in Moncton with his wife who suffers from multiple sclerosis: "Efficiency is one of the strongest arguments for implementing a comprehensive, universal pharmacare program. For the hodge-podge of programs that attempt to substitute for it is not only unfair, they are also costly both in a financial sense and a social sense."

But instead of acting on behalf of Canadians, our current stooges in Ottawa are focussed on clinging to phony minority power with support from the Liberals. Canada is one of the few richest countries without a national drug plan, or a national dental officer, or a national eyecare program.