Comments on: Wednesday Night #1381

By: Westmount Examiner

Westmount Examiner — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:37:08 +0000

Voters get a close look at candidates
Westmount voters got their first real chance to see and hear the candidates in the Sept. 8 federal by-election on Wednesday night at the traditional Meet the Candidates evening, put together by the Westmount Municipal Association and the Examiner.
… most [of the contingent of NDP supporters in attendance] came away reassured by former CBC radio host and political neophyte Anne Lagacé Dowson.
“I think Anne was even better than I hoped she would be,” said party supporter Corinne Brown. “She understands people, and she answers questions directly and clearly,”
Whether or not Lagacé Dowson did enough to sway wayward Liberal voters, however, remains to be seen. But given that residents were willing to brave the auditorium’s heat to give her the chance, anything, as they say, can happen.

By: Diana Thébaud Nicholson

Diana Thébaud Nicholson — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:41:00 +0000

Thanks also for the warm reception at the Wednesday night last week. I was very impressed by the scope and range of the company, and very pleased to be invited. I think Jack Layton also enjoyed the evening, and being back in the family stomping ground.
Anne Lagacé-Dowson

By: Diana Thébaud Nicholson

Diana Thébaud Nicholson — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:54:37 +0000

On Pharmacare
‘Two-Tiered system’. It’s like a massive subsidy to the drug industry, health coalition says.
Quebec’s public drug insurance plan was put into place in 1997 by the Régie de l’assurance-maladie du Québec, the government body responsible for medical insurance here. The purpose of the plan, which is mandatory for all Quebecers who do not have private group insurance, is to ensure that everyone has access to affordable prescription medication. Though the plan has made significant improvements over the years and is free for children, welfare recipients and some seniors who benefit from a guaranteed income supplement, some Quebecers struggling to make ends meet find the premiums, deductibles and co-payments prohibitive.

By: AD

AD — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:20:09 +0000

On the “foreign doctors” issue, the real story is budgetary. The Med. Ec. literature has some evidence that physicians can and do create demand for their own services. So do garage mechanics! Governments try, (Que. has a long and dishonourable history on this ) to control their health-care budgets by keeping down the supply of practitioners, available services, and budgetary outlays. The same people doing this will swear publicly to the one-payer system being the only route to salvation.The patient will only see, and blame, the micro phenomenon: the doctor will not see him, the nurse keeps him waiting etc. In other words adhering to the single payer system in principle is the vote getter, starving it for funds is not a vote loser.
Note, that automobile repairs not being a single- payer government outlay, no one keeps out foreign-born or trained automobile mechanics.

By: Diana Thébaud Nicholson

Diana Thébaud Nicholson — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:40:34 +0000

Private care gains support: new CMA boss
Dr.[Robert] Ouellet, a former head of the Quebec Medical Association, was one of the first doctors in Canada to successfully implement a for-profit scheme in the public system, delivering CT scans and MRIs to paying patients at five Montreal area clinics since 1987.
Medicare not universal without coverage of prescriptions, new CMA head says
MONTREAL — Canada’s medicare system cannot truly be considered universal until it starts providing access to prescription drugs regardless of a patient’s ability to pay, the new president of the Canadian Medical Association says.
“If access to diagnosis is universal, why isn’t access to drugs?” Robert Ouellet asked yesterday in his inaugural address.

By: Diana Thébaud Nicholson

Diana Thébaud Nicholson — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:09:17 +0000

Pour un système de santé public et accessible, faisons place au privé!
Marcel Boyer
(Le Devoir) Plusieurs personnalités du domaine de la santé ont affirmé leur volonté de défendre le régime public afin d’assurer la qualité et l’universalité des soins.
Dans leur Déclaration de Montréal, ces médecins contribuent à semer la confusion entourant la présence du privé en santé. Ils associent système de santé public et prestation des soins par des organismes gouvernementaux. Or la qualité d’un système de santé public n’exige aucunement que la prestation des soins elle-même soit assurée par un monopole bureaucratique gouvernemental. La seule façon pour les citoyens et les patients de se convaincre que le système est efficace, c’est de mettre en concurrence tous les fournisseurs de soins de santé. C’est ce qu’on pratique dans presque tous les domaines de notre vie privée et publique. Pourquoi pas en santé?

By: Diana Thébaud Nicholson

Diana Thébaud Nicholson — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:30:21 +0000

Star-crossed CMA proposals
DANIELLE MARTIN Chair, Canadian Doctors for Medicare
The new CMA chief has the support of the entire medical community when it comes to bringing prescription drugs into medicare. When it comes to introducing profit-making into the provision of medically necessary services, it’s a different story.
Already we have seen private, for-profit clinics select the healthy, lucrative patients, while leaving the expensive and sick for public hospitals; charging patients directly for basic care or demanding payment for non-insured services as a condition of gaining access to basic care; and increasing unnecessary procedures.
Instead of increasing support for these private for-profit surgical and diagnostic facilities, we need to improve capacity within our public system - which the international evidence demonstrates provides greater efficiency, quality and equity than private for-profit care - as well as focusing on preventive-illness and community management, inter-professional teams, and implementation of electronic health records.

By: Diana Thébaud Nicholson

Diana Thébaud Nicholson — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:44:35 +0000

NDP joins in battle against health care privatization
MONTRÉAL – NDP Health Critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis (Winnipeg North) today … pledged NDP support for Québécois’ fight against privatization.
“Protecting public health care is a priority for Québécois and it is a priority for the NDP,” said Wasylycia-Leis. “Equal access to health care is at the core of NDP policy and our track record proves we will fight to the finish for Québécois on this issue.”
Wasylycia-Leis is in Montréal to attend the annual meeting of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) and to hear from NDP by-election candidates Anne Lagacé Dowson (Westmount-Ville Marie) and Richard Marois (St-Lambert) on health care concerns.
Wasylycia-Leis cited former Québec Health Minister Philippe Couillard’s new job as a privatization strategist in the for-profit sector to underline the need for strong, committed voices in Parliament to counter the for-profit sympathizers.

By: Diana Sanderson

Diana Sanderson — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:56:38 +0000

The Canadian Medical Association is meeting this weekend, and they plan to discuss the privatization and commercialization of health care. Canadians should be very concerned this. Already across the country, the number of private clinics extra billing, user fees, and other illegal practices are growing while Health Minister Tony Clement and the Conservative government refuse to administer or enforce the Canada Health Act.
But not all doctors want privatization. In fact, many of them want to protect, expand and improve public health care, rejecting the CMA’s push to privatize. CUPE applauds these doctors for resisting for-profit medicine, and asks you to join us in making that support clear to Minister Clement.
Please use this form to send a message in support of public health care, and share the link with your friends, family, and networks.