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Nurses and Health Coalition Launches National Campaign to Defend Medicare

Posted on: Wednesday, 18 October 2006, 18:01 CDT

By KEVIN BISSETT

SAINT JOHN, N.B. (CP) - The security of Canada's medicare system is being threatened by a "perfect storm" of spending cuts, a court challenge and the growth of for-profit health services, warns the co-ordinator of the Canadian Health Coalition.

"There are developments . . . that threaten the security of public health care," Michael McBane told a meeting of the New Brunswick Nurses Union on Wednesday.

"There's a lot of misinformation, so it's important to put the facts on the table."

Federal tax cuts, a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that struck down a Quebec prohibition against private health insurance, and the push by some provinces toward for-profit, two-tier health services are among the factors working against the country's health system, he said.

McBane and Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, used the Saint John meeting to launch a national campaign called Medicare Works.

Town-hall meetings will be held in 32 communities across Canada, ending in Whitehorse, Yukon, on Nov. 18.

The goal is to inform Canadians on the facts, and to pressure politicians to use innovation to maintain the current system.

McBane said it is a myth that medicare is broken.

He said over the last 30 years of public health care in Canada, the infant mortality rate in Canada has fallen while life expectancy is up.

"It's about half as expensive as private health care, mixed health care and U.S. health care," said McBane.

He warned that the tax policy of the federal Conservative government threatens the very existence of medicare.

While campaigning in 2005, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said: "All taxes are bad."

"Guess how you fund medicare?" said McBane. "So be worried."

"I think we've reached the wall on tax cuts, in terms that it is now going to change the kind of quality of life our society has."

He said there are many things the federal government can do to improve the public health insurance system without adding more money to it, such as putting a greater focus on preventive medicine.

He said the issues of misuse and over use of medication must also be addressed.

"It's estimated that a minimum of 10,000 Canadians are killed every year from misuse of prescription drugs," he said. "There are 382,000,000 prescriptions each year in Canada . . . that's a lot of drugs."

McBane said medicare should be extended to prescription drugs, and government should stop contracting out hospital services.

Silas said moving to private health care is not the answer.

"It hasn't worked anywhere else, and why would it work here?" she said. "We have to make sure that care is based on needs and not your pocketbook."

She said nurses across the country know that the health-care system needs fixing, but maintains a public system is the best.

Silas said the new campaign is important in order to get Canadians engaged in the discussion.

"The whole debate around medicare is too important to leave to politicians or privateers," she said. "Canadians created medicare and Canadians will save medicare."

Source: Canadian Press

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