This week at their annual meeting in Charlottetown, Canadian Medical Association delegates will be asked to make crucial decisions that will affect the future of health care in Canada.

The Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest citizens’ advocacy organization, has never intervened at a Canadian Medical Association (CMA) meeting before, but this time is different. This time the CMA is considering electing Dr. Brian Day as its next president. As a part owner and medical director of Canada’s largest for-profit health clinic located in Vancouver, he is one of Canada’s most outspoken critics of public health care. And by electing him, the CMA would be sending Canadians a very strong message about where it stands in the health-care debate.

Dr. Brian Day has been an active promoter of privatized, for-profit health care. He has lobbied a Senate committee and the Romanow Commission on the “benefits” of for-profit care, and has given presentations on the issue for the right-wing Fraser Institute, saying privatization is the only choice for “consumers” of health care.

He is president of the Charter Health Fund, a national organization of for-profit promoters that raised money to support the Chaoulli Supreme Court case, arguing that people should be able to pay for private health care. His surgical centre, along with about a dozen other for-profit facilities, acted as an intervener in the Chaoulli case.

There would be serious implications in electing Dr. Day as the next CMA president. In 2005, the CMA was criticized when it voted in favour of private health insurance, “to reimburse the cost of care obtained in the private sector when timely access to care could not be provided in the public health-care system.” We understand that this was not an unequivocal endorsement of private insurance, but an expression of doctors’ lack of faith in the ability to find solutions within the public system.

Clearly, government funding cuts, irresponsible political decisions and poor management have left us with a health-care system that is less than perfect. Medical professionals who bear witness to the shortcomings of this system on a daily basis have an important role to play in solving the problem. As delegates attempt to do so through various resolutions at this year’s CMA annual meeting, we request that they continue to look within the public system for lasting solutions that will benefit all Canadians.

Privatization advocates like Dr. Day often look to Sweden and other European countries for a two-tier solution. But the Canadian reality is very different from that of European countries. Given our current trade relationship with the United States, once we go down the slippery slope of introducing profit into the health-care system, the impact will be irreversible.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada and the United States is very clear — the exemption for health care, which has kept large U.S. health corporations out of Canada, applies only to a fully public system. Once we privatize even some health-care services, NAFTA will force Canada to give equal treatment to U.S. companies competing for Canadian patients.

The argument that a new system could be based on public-private systems in Sweden, France, Switzerland or other European countries is a complete fallacy. In Canada, increased privatization would leave our public health-care system vulnerable to American interests.

According to several polls, at least 85 per cent of Canadians support a publicly funded and publicly delivered health-care system. Canadians do not believe that profits should be made at the expense of the sick and injured. As president of the CMA, Dr. Day would have extensive lobbying powers and political sway to push the for-profit health-care agenda on behalf of medical professionals across Canada. It is in the best interest of Canada’s health-care system that someone who believes and adheres to the principles of the Canada Health Act represents medical professionals.

Public health care was a hard-won battle for Canadians who believed it was a fundamental right. We hope that this year the CMA will take a firm stance against for-profit health care in Canada. As a first step, we urge delegates to support an alternative candidate to Dr. Brian Day for president-elect of the Canadian Medical Association — one that will stand up for Canada’s public health-care system.

Maude Barlow

Maude Barlow

Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians and chairs the board of Washington-based Food and Water Watch. She is also an executive member of the San Francisco–based...