Former Ontario Premier Mike Harris and former Reform Party Leader Preston Manning threw Prime Minister Paul Martin a lifeline today as it gave him campaign fodder in the form of the health care "hidden agenda".
Here is how the National Post reports the issue.
...Manning, the Reform party founder, and Harris, the former Ontario Tory premier, insisted their report, commissioned by the right-wing Fraser Institute, was non-partisan.
But it quickly became fodder for a potential federal election.
Prime Minister Paul Martin, seeking a respite from his woes over the sponsorship scandal, vowed to fight ''tooth and nail'' to defend medicare.
The Conservative agenda is no longer hidden, Martin told the Commons.
''It is no federal role in health care, it is no Canada Health Act, it is no one saying no to the privatization of health care.''
Or you can be a complete contrarian like Paul Wells.
The defender of health care rises again
Could he be more pathetic?
Before getting all red-in-the-face I suggest you actually read the document entitled A Canada Strong and Free.
What it points out is what we already know. We are not getting proper return on the taxes we pay for health care. The fix promoted by the Liberal Party and the NDP is to spend an increasing amount of our GDP on health care with no apparent end in site. What Mr Harris and Mr Manning is another. Is it the correct path for Canada? That is not clear but they do point out that we are already paying more that any other country on a per-capita basis but we do not have the best health care system. Why would spending even more money change this?
I have pulled out some of the document from sections that deal with health care to show this document, when read, is not the bogeyman that the Liberals can use against Conservative Leader Harper in the next campaign. However since most Canadians will not read it and instead have the information presented to them form sources opposed to institutional change this will become a weapon in the hands of PM Martin.
...in the provision of a social service essential to a high quality of life such as health care, all of the other industrialized countries with universal health-care coverage and health-care outcomes superior to those of Canada have "two-track systems," which strive to achieve an efficient and effective balance between the roles of public and private sectors in the financing and delivery of such services. In Canada, the monopolistic provisions of the Canada Health Act prevent this balance from being achieved or even pursued, restricting the Canadian health-care consumer's freedom of choice and resulting in health-care outcomes inferior to those countries that pursue a more balanced approach.
...With respect to the structure and performance of Canada as a federal state, another serious imbalance has been created through continued federal intrusion into areas such as health care that our constitution clearly assigns to the provinces. Expansion of the federal role in areas of provincial juristiction through the arbitrary exercise of the federal spending power violates the spirit of the constitution and creates needless straines in federal-provincial relations. It runs counter to the principal that essential social services are best delivered by the level of government closest to those recieving the services.
...This equation of health care with the Canadian identity is unhistorical and untrue. We can't begin to have a serious, adult debate about the future of health care until we abandon the mantra that our national identity is somehow tied up in a state monopoly of health insurance...The country was 117 years old in 1984 when the Canada Health Act created the current system by effectively outlawing private medical and hospital services. (Michael Bliss)
...Government and its agencies need not run hospitals any more than doctors need to be civil servants. Allowing Canadians to choose in this vital area will also allow them to assume more responsibility for health care by choosing the best providers for the services they want, not the ones government decides.
The report provides a plethora a statistics that show that even though we are tied with Iceland as the number-one-per-capita spender on health care we did not rank number one in delivering health care.
No other country in the developed world - even those with highly socialistic governments - goes to such lengths to limit freedom in its health-care system, restrict personal choice and responsibility, and insist on a government-planned monopoly regardless of cost.
Do the monopolistic and anti-market provisions of the Canada Health Act result in better health care? Based on international comparisons, the answer is emphatically "No!".
...Health-care needs and preferences are specific to individuals, families, and communities, making it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for governments to aggregate and optimally manage the different needs and perferences of millions of health-care consumers. It is informed individuals, families, and local communities themselves that are bet able to determine their own health-care needs and manage their health-care choices.
...Nothing better illustrates the perversity of our health-care system than the fact that in Canada "accountability" in health care does not mean accountability of the providers to the patients but rather accountability to two levels of government.
...Remove jurisdictional roadblocks to better health care for patients by substantially amending or replacing the Canada Health Act and transferring responsibility for health-care delivery and financing, including federal tax points, entirely to the provinces. Make Freedom of Choice a fundemental principle of any future health-care legislation.
...Expand health-care facilities and cut waiting times by removing all federal restricitions that prevent provincial governments from using private capital, non-governmental providers, and market-based pricing mechanisms in the development of health-care facilities and the delivery of health-care services to Canadians
