2006/03/01

Will Harper defend Canada Health Act?

Ralph Klein can't resist thumbing his nose at the feds even when it's a Conservative PM. Klein’s Third Way released yesterday clearly violates the Canada Health Act and the federal government must intervene to protect public health care. During the recent campaign Harper made a clear commitment to uphold the Canada Health Act.

Klein's proposals would violate the Canada Health Act by allowing:

-Wealthier patients to “jump the queue” and pay for private health care services.
-The option to buy private health insurance for publicly insured services.
-Doctors to operate in both the public and private systems.
-The delivery of public services through private for-profit facilities.
-“Non-government investment sources” - which could mean opening health care up to foreign investors and companies.

The Canada Health Act prohibits extra billing or user fees and requires that all health care services be delivered “on uniform terms and conditions” to residents.

Harper has said previously that there would be “no private parallel system” under his mandate. Will he take on Klein and "stand up" for Canada’s public health care system? Tony Clement's comments so far sound like mush.

2 comments:

Andrew said...

I sure hope he doesn't ;)

cardinal47 said...

Andrew, i hope he does but I don't think he will. Do you want the rich to be able to get better care than the average Joe or Andrew?