On false dichotomies

The Leader-Post is apparently eager to shill for the Sask Party's health care privatization agenda. But there's an obvious problem with its attempt to frame the issue:

Is it intended to prevent sickness and injuries, then quickly heal the injured? Or is the health-care system all about creating vast civil service empires -- staffed by dedicated people, to be sure, but people trapped in an entrenched bureaucracy?

Surely, the answer is the first.

Of course, there's little doubt that the focus should be the first as between those two choices. And indeed, caring for the sick and injured would equally obviously rate higher than other goals: add "Or is it about finding ways to allow corporate interests to profit from necessary public services?" to the list, and the answer should be no less obvious.

The problem, though, is that Don McMorris has told us that the Wall government is devoted to privatizing parts of the health care system even if it doesn't result in better or more affordable service. And the fact that the Sask Party is putting patients second to for-profit providers should tell us who it is that really has their priorities wrong.