Mobilizing for Medicare
Health care activists set about to build a national coalition to save our health care system
The following article appeared in a recent issue (Vol.7 No.4) of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Journal
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For more than five years now articles published in the IAM Journal, have warned that Medicare was under attack.
On October 12 of this year, participants in a national roundtable examined how that attack has left the future of medicare in doubt. And they vowed to fight back with strong, united forces.
Their goal is a national coalition that would not only repel the attackers, but also see the public system extended to include a universal system of home care, long-term care, and pharmacare.
The roundtable, Mobilizing for Medicare, was convened in Ottawa by the Canadian Labour Congress and the Canadian Health Coalition.
"Medicare is facing a dangerous time," said CLC Secretary-Treasurer Nancy Richer in her opening remarks at the roundtable.
Maude Barlow, Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, said "Medicare is down for the count. It is under a death warrant, issued by the same elite forces that fought its birth in the first place."
Riche observed that the Romanow Commission is beginning its examination of the future of health care at a time when privatization is an ever-growing reality.
"Governments have lost the will to secure the future of Medicare," Riche said. "They're looking for a way out.
"The for-profit health care industry wants health care turned into a commodity for sale. It's salivating at the prospect of huge shareholder profits."
Participants expressed grave concerns about the work of another committee.
The Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, has received a mandate to examine the status of Canada's health care system and the role played by the federal government in providing health care to Canadians.
The committee is headed by Senator Michael Kirby, who has very close ties to the for-profit health care industry. He sits on the board of Extendicare, a for-profit nursing home/long-term care corporation.
In September, the Kirby committee released a report called Issues and Options. The CLC re-named it Let's Count the Ways We Can Entrench For-Profit Health Care in the Public System.
The vast majority of the options in that report focus on a for-profit tier of health care.
They include the purchase of private insurance for publicly insured health services and a variety of user fees, including adding the value of health service received onto personal income tax.
Riche warned that most political parties and many governments are turning away from Medicare in favour of commercial, for-profit health care: "The Progressive Conservative Party doesn't say it out loud, but their platform calls for doing away with the federal role in health care by ending cash transfers.
The Canadian Alliance is "highly vocal" about wanting a tier of for-profit medicare. "If they ever form the government, Medicare is history."
The federal Liberal government has forsaken Medicare in both actions and words. "They cut health care funding. Even when forced by public opinion to reinvest in health care, they restored funding on a temporary basis. By 2005, health spending per person will not be as high as it was in 1994. The federal government used to pay 50 cents of every dollar of health care spending. Now they pay about 14 cents of every health dollar," says Riche.
The Liberals also failed to live up their promise to create a national home care program and a national pharmacare program.
"When the Province of Alberta passed legislation to allow private, for-profit clinics to provide publicly insured health services, the federal government did nothing."
Riche described that legislation as a huge step towards two-tier health care. Moreover, "it puts the entire national program at risk because of international trade agreements."
The most telling evidence that the Liberals are willing to let Medicare go could be found in its trade agenda: "Health care and other social services are on the table at the World Trade Organization negotiations on services."
Also telling was the fact that "Canada's department of Industry has offices in the U.S. to help the U.S. health industry get acquainted with our system."
Riche also reminded roundtable participants that the Auditor General's report accused the federal government of taking a "passive stance" on health care. "Provinces are violating the Canada Health Act and the federal government is doing nothing about it
"Those who favour for-profit health care are clear in what they want. The Fraser Institute puts it best - for-profit hospitals and user fees - a U.S.-style system."
The 1997 final report of the National Forum on Health favoured strengthening the public system. It said increasing the scope of public funding may be the key to the reducing total costs, and that the profit motive in financing health care leads to high administrative costs, and inequities in access and quality.
Riche warned: "One might speculate that the federal government wants the Romanow Commission to find some middle ground between the gung-ho, for-profit approach of the Kirby Commission and the very progressive National Forum report.
"If this is the case, it is bad news for Medicare. The federal government may be looking for a way to diminish even further its role in providing essential public services to Canadians, even though the Constitution says it must do so."
A CLC study report shows how government cutbacks had resulted in gaps in public health services that profit-makers are rushing in to fill. Private spending on health care rose by 96.2 per cent in 10 years - from 1988 to 1998.
Other roundtable speakers included Marie Pelchat of Coalition Solidarité Santé, Rabbi Steven Garten of Faith Partners Group, and Kathleen Connors and Shirley Douglas of the Canadian Health Coalition. Douglas is the daughter of the "father" of medicare, Tommy T.C.Douglas.
Round table participants stressed the importance of presenting the Romanow Commission with the facts, noting that those who want to destroy Medicare will be out in full force.
"We affirm the need for a publicly administered and funded system, with services delivered on a not-for-profit basis," said a joint statement prepared for the meeting.
The round table statement opposed any commercialization of health: "The federal government must negotiate a general exclusion of health services from all trade agreements."
