Healthy discussions

The battle within the medical profession as to the importance of preserving public health care (with Doctors for Medicare all too often having to counterbalance the pro-privatization musings of the Canadian Medical Association) will be coming to Saskatoon this August. And a couple of familiar faces will be leading the charge to preserve and improve the public health care system:

Doctors for Medicare is planning an event at the Broadway Theatre on Sunday, Aug. 16 -- the eve of the CMA meetings -- to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Canada Health Act and to emphasize its support for a publicly funded, single-payer system.
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Martin and Saskatoon family physician Dr. Ryan Meili, who is the local representative for the pro-medicare group, say it's more important than ever to support a public system.

"There are limitations to any system. The answer is not to set up private clinics," Meili said.
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Meili will emcee the Aug. 16 event at the Broadway Theatre. Speakers will include Martin and former premier Roy Romanow, who led a national health-care review.

Romanow said he's not participating to be for or against any group. Rather, he wants to show his support for the Canada Health Act.

In tough financial times, the calls for private solutions increase, he said. It happened in 1995 when he was premier, and he hopes it doesn't happen again.

"If history is any lesson, some will call for privatization," said Romanow.

Romanow said some of his recommended reforms have been implemented, but others have stalled. The most needed reform is "catastrophic" drug coverage for families hit with an illness requiring expensive medications.

Unfortunately, there's been far too little talk of actually trying to improve health care for Canadians (through catastrophic drug coverage or otherwise) over the past few years: the federal NDP's efforts to strengthen the system have fallen on deaf ears from both the Libs and Cons, while the provincial effort to make prescription drugs more affordable was rolled back by the Wall government.

But the more time high-profile figures like Meili and Romanow put into raising the issues currently facing health care in Canada and pointing out that there are in fact positive answers in contrast to privatization, the greater the chance of better outcomes in years and election cycles to come. And hopefully a high-profile Doctors for Medicare event will help to shape the discussion both inside and outside the medical profession in Saskatchewan.

On battle lines

Come to think of it, there may be ample reason why neither the Cons nor the Libs are considered competent by the public when it comes to health care. The Globe and Mail reports that while Harper and Dion bicker about how to force an election for reasons with nothing to do with policy, the Canadian Medical Association has moved from a leader who kept his support for privization on the back burner to one who plans a full frontal assault on public service delivery:

The natural next step for Canada's health system is allowing more private delivery, which will give patients more choice, and better access to care, the new president of the Canadian Medical Association says.

“My whole career has been about resolving access issues. This is my battle horse,” said Robert Ouellet, who takes over Wednesday as president of the CMA...

“I've never hidden what I do. I'm not ashamed of it. In fact, I'm quite proud,” he said in an interview in his spartan office in suburban Laval.

Fortunately, the medical community isn't lacking for members who are willing to speak up about the need to keep health care in public hands. And the more the CMA pushes privatization into the public eye, the more likely voters will be to recognize the importance of representatives in both the health care system and the political system who aren't so distracted by partisan wrangling as to lose track of the fight to improve public health care.