Dennis,I applaud your passionate critique of for-profit health care. As to
the question of why any Canadian would tolerate its discussion, I think it
is a question of just not understanding how the for-profit system affects
access and ultimately health decisions. We take for granted what we have
always had. It was not until about the 3rd year of living in the US that I
began to realize, both through my personal health experiences and working
with elderly populations with my students, how devastating and disempowering
the control of health care by the corporate sector can be. I was employed
and had decent health insurance unlike the 40 million or so uninsured and
all those underinsured and on Medicare and Medicaid. The dismal placing of
the US as 22nd or so among industrialized nations in so far as their Infant
Mortality Rate is just one indicator. I shudder to think what the IMR of
un/underinsured populations in the US would be!
Because many Canadians have never known a time without a health system that,
at least for 'essential medical services" provides publicly administered,
universally available, comprehensive, portable, and accessible services,
they find it difficult to imagine what it would mean not to have it. I think
positions by such socially powerful groups as the Ontario Medical
Association supporting a 2-tier system contribute to the public's
misconceptions about "inefficiencies" of our system and make rhetoric about
decreasing costs and waiting lists attractive. The response by the
Registered Nurses Association of Ontario is very helpful in setting out some
of the issues. It is called The Canada Health Act: To preserve and protect
and is available from RNAO in Toronto. Also helpful is a paper by Barer,
Evans, Hertzman and Johri called "Lies, Damned Lies, and Health Care
Zombies. Discredited ideas that will not die." It provides a very useful
detailed analysis of myths that persist about health care in the face of
evidence that refutes them. The authors argue that indefensible policies and
practice persist because they serve the interests of powerful lobbies. I'm
not sure whether it is available on a web-site or not. The address given on
the paper is U of Texas, P.O. Box 20186, Houston, TX 77225. It is HPI
Discussion Paper #10 dated March, 1998.
Adeline
-----Original Message-----
From: Health Promotion on the Internet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Dennis Raphael
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2000 8:34 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Canadian Health Care at a Crosswords...
Forgive me, my closing remark to you was unwarranted and unjustified.
There is little doubt however, that the Klein proposal is ideologically
driven. There also is no doubt that for-profit health care has been a
disaster everywhere it has been brought in. Why any Canadian would even
tolerate its discussion is an abomination. For profit care leads to
hardship and poor care; there is a reason that it has been resisted around
thye world -- the USA being exception.
I beleieve Canadians are also coming to realize that for-profit housing
leads us on the same path as for-profit health care: a warping of
priorities, a weakening of values, and a descent into who knows what.
Perhaps this will be the tool that allows us to get rid of the likes of
Klein and Harris in Canada for ever!
At 07:05 AM 3/8/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>I don't think that the Klein proposal specifically mentions "shareholders."
>I think there is more to this than economics, Dennis. But I do wish you
>could respond to me without insulting me personally.
>
>Regards,
>
>Alana
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Health Promotion on the Internet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
>Behalf Of d.raphael
>Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2000 6:24 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Canadian Health Care at a Crosswords...
>
>
>For-profit clinics and hospitals imply shareholders who benefit from
surplus
>value: procedures are carried out in a manner to assure profit for
>shareholders. Extendicare in Canada and the US is such an example of a
>large
>multinational for profit health care corporation.
>
>Has anyone bought shares in a Morgenthaler clinic lately? Free-standing is
>not
>the same as for-profit! Learn a little economics before you make such
>statements.
>
>The best,
>
>Dennis R.
>
>
>
>Visit our Web Sites for information and reports from all of our Quality of
>Life
>Projects!
> http://www.utoronto.ca/qol http://www.utoronto.ca/seniors
>
> ******************************************************************
> Where a great proportion of the people are suffered to languish
> in helpless misery,
> That country must be ill-policed and wretchedly governed:
> A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.
>
> -- Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1770
> ******************************************************************
>
>Dennis Raphael, Ph.D.
>Associate Professor and Associate Director,
>Masters of Health Science Program in Health Promotion
>Department of Public Health Sciences
>Graduate Department of Community Health
>University of Toronto
>McMurrich Building, Room 101
>Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 1A8
>voice: (416) 978-7567
>fax: (416) 978-2087
>e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
Visit our Web Site for information about our Seniors Participatory and
Community Quality of Life Projects! Free Reports Also.
http://www.utoronto.ca/qol http://www.utoronto.ca/seniors
********************************************************************
Long have I looked for the truth about the life of people together.
That life is crisscrossed, tangled, and difficult to understand.
I have worked hard to understand it and when I had done so
I told the truth as I found it.
- Bertolt Brecht
********************************************************************
Dennis Raphael, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Associate Director,
Masters of Health Science Program in Health Promotion
Department of Public Health Sciences
Graduate Department of Community Health
University of Toronto
McMurrich Building, Room 101
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 1A8
voice: (416) 978-7567
fax: (416) 978-2087
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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