A new voice

For now, health-care issues seem to be largely on the back burner. But next time they come to the forefront, there will be a new group of medical practitioners fighting to strengthen the public system:

"Canadians deserve and expect more," Doctors for Medicare said in a prepared statement, noting the endorsement last summer by a majority of CMA delegates of private health-care insurance for patients who don't get timely treatment through the publicly funded system...

The group cited concern about recent "close calls" with privatization in health-care proposals of Alberta and Quebec. "Both Quebec and Alberta have looked over the precipice and, fortunately, stepped back and made the right choices," said Dr. Tom Noseworthy, a Calgary critical-care specialist who chairs the Western Canada waiting-list project.

"But it's going to happen again and we should focus our energy and our efforts on a publicly funded universal system and stop believing in the myths that a private parallel system will make us better off, because it won't."

It remains to be seen whether the new group will receive as much press as is given to similar groups backing privatization. But it's still a plus to know there's one more organized ally in the fight to preserve a universal and public health-care system.