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Canadians Back ‘Public Solutions' to Improve Care, Poll Finds
An overwhelming 86 per cent of Canadians favour “public solutions” for bolstering medicare, according to a new poll.
The survey, commissioned by the Canadian Health Coalition, is being released Wednesday as a pre-emptive strike.
That is because the Canadian Medical Association, at its coming general council meeting, plans to stage a high-profile discussion about transforming medicare, and it will release its own poll on support for privately delivered care.
Michael McBane, national co-ordinator of the Canadian Health Coalition, said he has no doubt that poll will show strong support for “privatization schemes” but the “language used in the CMA survey was so vague and misleading that its results cannot possible be interpreted as support for more for-profit medicine.”
He said that the outgoing CMA president, Robert Ouellet, operates private medical imaging clinics and is promoting a personal agenda that is out of step with Canadian values.
“Canadians have told us they want to keep our health-care system public and to improve it with made-in-Canada solutions. They also have told us they flat-out reject Dr. Ouellet's proposal to provide us with American-style two-tier medicine,” he said.
In fact, Dr. Ouellet has explicitly rejected a U.S.-style system. In a recent speech launching a new campaign entitled Time To Transform Healthcare, he said: “The U.S. is a very poor performer. Why look to a system that ranks below ours for lessons?”
Rather, Dr. Ouellet has actively promoted European-style health care, with a mix of private and publicly delivered care. He is particularly keen on “activity-based funding,” in which hospitals would receive funding based on the number of patients they treat and their efficiency. Currently, hospitals receive block funding.
The new poll, conducted by Nanos Research, surveyed 1,001 Canadians between April 25 and May 03. The results are considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Those polled were asked the following question: “Thinking about the future of Canada's public health-care system, would you support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose or oppose public solutions to make our public health care stronger?”
A total of 86.2 per cent of respondents said they support or somewhat support public solutions, while 8.2 per cent said they oppose or somewhat oppose the approach. The balance, 5.7 per cent, said they were unsure.
“With more than eight in 10 Canadians supporting public solutions to make public health care stronger, there is compelling evidence that Canadians across all demographics would prefer a public over a for-profit health-care system,” said Nik Nanos, president of Nanos Research.
A recent report by Health Canada, entitled Healthy Canadians – A Federal Report on Comparable Health Indicators 2008, found that 85.2 per cent of Canadians were “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with health-care services overall. That level was unchanged from 2005, the last time the survey was conducted.
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38 Comments so far
Show AllCanadians beware!!! The criminal drug, chain hospital, and insurance mafia of the US would love to take over and destroy your public health system. They will literally do anything for their insatiable greed, including bankrupting families and individuals, as data here shows the majority of personal bankruptcies are due to a medical crisis not covered by insurance. If the US medical mafia can devise a way to administer a Shock Doctrine "cure" for the Canadian public system and thereby make it another of their "profit centers", be assured they will do so.
Damned Globe and Mail! First of all, let's set something straight right away. The Canadian health system already provides "privately delivered care."
Apart from a few who work as scientific advisors for various government departments, Canadian doctors are NOT public servants. What the Canadian system lacks (if that's the right word) is private for-profit insurance for basic health care services, although some supplemental benefits are available through private plans for those who want them.
The objective of the corporate interests and their political allies, including the CMA, is the same as that of the camel putting its nose in the tent. By signing on to NAFTA, Canada put itself in a position whereby almost any hole that can be poked in the dike protecting its current system opens it up to a flood of cross-border incursions and privatization from which there is no avenue of retreat.
If Canadians don't soon flatly reject their current conservative government, that's exactly what they're going to get.
To stay healthy.
Don't worry.
Drink red wine.
Use alternative medices.
Don't read or watch bad news, just turn away.
Don't go to a doctor for ever little ache and pain.
Puff a little cannibus now and again.
And don't listen to American propaganda.
I would add this to your list: Read everything you can about medicine. There is a pocket book out there that interns use. It's a kind of a doctor's cheat sheet. Get one if you can. It helps you zero in on an appropriate diagnosis. Also, if we could force the congress to make medical diagnostic software including the prophylactic therapy available in public libraries for free, it would cut down a lot of doctor visits. Finally, the alternative medcines act in many ways as analogs to prescription medications so the "gotta see a doctor for a prescription" thing could be bypassed.
AGG--regarding the "analogs". It is the prescription meds that are the analogs--as some call them "space-alien molecules". The real thing only exists in nature and there are dozens of natural substances that have been banned by the FDA so the analogs can rake in the money. This is part of what is going on in the health care debate. If we had direct access to alternatives and alternative practitioners, many people would not need any insurance to cover primary care because, as you point out, we would not have to run to doctors for every little problem. Then, doctors could spend their time with people who need real help. It's very scary to everyone who has something to lose when people start taking charge of their own health.
Current computer models estimate that if everyone in the U.S. and Canada had adequate vitamin D status and sufficient intake of calcium, we would prevent (approximately) 58,000 cases of breast cancer and 49,000 cases of colo-rectal cancer ANNUALLY. Cost for therapeutic amounts of supplemental vitamin d (not analogs): $25 for 8 months, cost of spring and summer sun exposure--zero.
In the mid-nineties, I went to a chiropractor who charged $35/visit. If you paid cash it was $30 because they didn't have to wait for their money or spend clerical time filing claims. The state regulator stopped that practice because it was "unfair to insurance companies". Until we break the monopoly, nothing will change.
Great plan. For those who don't believe alternative/natural medicine is a real answer, although not a complete one, I suggest picking up a copy of "Why Stomach Acid is Good For You" by JV Wright, MD and L Lenard, PhD. Then, ask yourself how much money would bw saved if doctors made this one simple change in diagnostics. Dr Wright has been practicing natural medicine for over 35 years and has vast direct clinical experience. He's been more vocal than most of his colleagues who have similar practices.
It is the comment of Superfly that lead me to wonder not if Americans want a universal single-payer system but if they deserve one.
Hey, no one north of 49 is trying to sell single-payer to anyone else. People can mislead and misrepresent the Canadian system all they want. No hurt feelings here.
Hey, if we can put those private insurers down south out of business better for our system. I would like to put a stop to the Americanization of the Canadian system.
Canada is unfair. It doesn't allow Private Ins. companies to have a LEVEL Playing field! Those Communist Canadians aren't fair to those Companies and their owners who want to rape and plunder their citizens for Profit. Shame on Canada!
Damn the Canadians. Just kidding. Merci beaucoups Canada for showing us the way.
The Canadians simply don't understand the joys of masochism. Now here in America, the health insurance honchos kick us in the teeth and knock us down. Then they charge us for the privilege of licking the spittle off their shoes. Nietzsche must be smiling somewhere.
NOW I WONDER WHY THE 86% CANADIAN APPROVAL RATING FOR THEIR COMPLETELY PUBLIC "OPTION" JUST DOESN'T SEEM TO GET REPORTED DOWN SOUTH HERE, ESPECIALLY BY THE WONDERFUL MAINSTREAM MEDIA THAT WE ENJOY IN THIS "LAND OF THE FREE AND HOME OF THE SHAFTED?
Right on fussy! There may be some reporting, but nothing approaching appropriate level of response or information providing called for by US corporate, for profit medical elites attack on current US proposals. I'd think Canadians would be sorely offended by the aspersions cast upon their medical program by our right wing.
Slightly offended perhaps, but it's like getting kicked by a mule. You take the source into account. On the other hand, the ignorance and its probable consequences for one's near neighbors makes anyone with any empathy at all very sad.
All the whining and yelping about the "dangers of socialism" or
the slippery slope to (shudder) communism is getting old.
First of all, I'll bet that most of the Americans bandying these words about could not define them, let alone recognize a dreaded communist or socialist.
Once they get that worked out, I'd like them to tell me just what's so bad about having good universal health care, good education, good public transportation....etc.? Why is that so scary?
Social programs benefit all. True socialism is rare these days. lot to learn about
Socialism? Bring it on. Let's end the "me-first" selfishness that's destroying this country.
All the whining and yelping about the "dangers of socialism" or
the slippery slope to (shudder) communism is getting old.
First of all, I'll bet that most of the Americans bandying these words about could not define them, let alone recognize a dreaded communist or socialist.
Once they get that worked out, I'd like them to tell me just what's so bad about having good universal health care, good education, good public transportation....etc.? Why is that so scary?
Social programs benefit all. True socialism is rare these days.
Socialism? Bring it on. Let's end the "me-first" selfishness that's destroying this country.
Give us Single Payer and free education to among other things, retrain insurance salesmen.
I could support a patallel private system under very strict conditions.
As example all profits are taxed at a higher rate with said funds going into the Public system.
Better check the relevant provisions of NAFTA first and note carefully the potentially irreversable consequences of ANY privization in relation to the admission of subsequent "unfair competition" claims. It's a case of be careful what you wish for.
You can thank Brian Mulroney (a former conservative PM) for that neat trick, along with giving away all petro resources acquisition priorities and any possibility for a made-in-Canada energy policy.
Oh I have NO use for NAFTA. I say we just ignore it, like the USA does.
I am a US born citizen living in N. Montana just below the Canadian provinces of Alberta and BC. On Canadian economic and social issues these provinces are Canada's most conservative.
My family has been intermarried with Canadians for 3 generations. My wife and in-laws are Canadian and my wife's uncle is a member of BC provincial parliament.
Besides family connections, my Montana based business results in me spending a great deal of time in Canada, so I think I know something about how our northern neighbors see us Americans.
Most Cannucks who live within 50 miles north of the border in the western provinces like us and are friendly and respectful. It is not this way if you go much further north into the western provinces, and it gets a lot worse if you go further the east and north where the denser Canadian populations are.
Ever since the debate over health care got reignited in America big time about 20 years ago, I've never met a Canadian anywhere who said they would trade their system for ours. Alberta and BC people tell me to this day that they remember with a shudder how some Montana, Washington state, and North Dakota governor candidates organized bus trips of US senior citizens into Canada to buy affordable prescription drugs across the border. BTW, this practice was made illegal in short order by the US government at the demand of the US drug industry.
Yes, I've heard some Canadians complain now and then about this or that medical treatment problem, but never about wanting to go the way of America's system.
Maybe a few Canadians do favor switching to a privatized system like ours. But from anything I have ever seen or heard, it sure as hell ain't most.
Well put my friend. Although I don't like generalizations you hit the nail on the head. I am Canadian and the thing about those 50 miles of the border is that those are all rural farming communities, where working hard is big and going to school is not. Farming communities love conservative government, guns and Ted Nugent. They hate fags, dykes, pot and anything else that makes people happy. That is why they are so friendly toward Americans. Because Americans love guns and they hate fags.
In any case I digress a little.
At the end of the day you can't find too many people who are ready to change the health care system. Even in oil rich Alberta, where 57% of the population thought that GWB was good for World Peace, you are hard pressed to find anyone who preaches for a corporate dominated system. Sure they bitch about long lines and better plastic surgeons in the US, but you are really hard-pressed to find an advocate of the US system.
Not that I generalize...
I've practised rural family medicine in British Columbia for 33 years. After graduating McGill medicine, I was privileged to seek further training in the U.S.A..
I learned that those who could afford it would receive exemplary care from skilled, caring practitioners of many disciplines. During 3 years of family practice residency, and a year of emergency department work, I also saw marginalized people who could not afford that care, and who struggled to afford appropriate testing and medication.
I resuscitated people in the emergency department, and saw them admitted to i.c.u.. Some eventually succumbed to their illnesses, leaving their families with crushing debt.
The Canadian system isn't perfect, but regardless of socio-economic status, my patients have equal access to the care they deserve.
As death comes inevitably to us all, families will grieve the loss of a member, but not their homes or dignity.
I have never regretted coming home.
Thank you. You are a credit to your profession.
Now, if you and your like-minded colleagues could just do something about that damned CMA and its politics, ...
Thank you, Doctor. I wish we had the Canadian system and also more doctors like you here. Too many medical professionals in the U.S. are in it for the money.
It's amassing that so many Americans don't understand the profound concept and meaning of "Capitalism".
Capitalism = Priority of Profit
Social concerns in a "Capitalism" are always secondary. That should be more than notable!
Capitalism generates anti social behavior.
The truth is that a true conservative would see that a healthy work force is a productive work force. If they looked at the data, it is the working class that suffers. the problems is the the health care system is one of the ways that They make money in order to control you folks. The USA's propaganda apparatus is a well oiled machine.
It's absolutely amazing watching CNN and other US tv from up here in Canada. The protesters and rabble rousers at these townhall meetings are unbelievable in their ignorance. Many of them look like they could really benefit from universal health care, but NO! it is so un-American in their minds.
Where was the anger, the passion, the protests, the rabble rousing when USA waged war based on lies, spied on its own citizens, tortured and killed innocent people, kept people locked up for years without due process of law (many innocents , including a Canadian child)deregulated industries so they could pollute more, turned a blind eye to scams and outright criminal behaviour on Wall Street and other huge corporations, etc. etc. Where was the outrage then?
The hysterical performances by people who are shaking and crying and screaming in their outrage is downright hilarious and ridiculous if it wasn't such a serious issue for USA. If these people would educate themselves, they'd come to the understanding that they would actually benefit, as would their friends and neighbours, and it would be a better America for everyone.
We up here in Canada, are shaking our heads at the spectacle. I'm sure so are the French, the British, the Scandinavians, etc. What could be more reassuring than knowing that you have access to your very own doctor who can make any, and all, decisions as to the best lab tests, surgeries, medications, etc. for your individual situation. He/she does not have to ask anyone's permission. This service is availabel to the rich, the poor, and the middle-class. Everyone.
But then, I'm preaching to the choir (informed, progressive minded CD posters) and
But surely, Superfly jests. How could anyone on CD be so dense?
We are a failed state here in the U.S. What you are seeing on TV is theater. These people aren't exactly "hired" to do this stuff but remember we are a nation that puts a premium on good acting. Acting in government, acting in sales, acting in finance, acting in stock brokerages, etc. People with integrity are shunned. Our country has been hallowed out by the military industrial complex termites. It's now a big facade. Enjoy the show from Canada. I wish I was there. Things are going to get very bad here.
seethroughbs:
Re, your description, "hysterical performances..." I think you've hit on something there.
From Wikipedia: "Mass hysteria...refers to any sort of "public wave" phenomenon, and has been used to describe the periodic widespread reappearance and public interest in UFO reports, crop circles, and similar examples. Also, when information, real or fake, becomes misinterpreted but believed, e.g. penis panic. Hysteria was often associated with movements like the Salem Witch Trials, slave revolt conspiracies, McCarthyism, the First Red Scare, the Second Red Scare and terrorism, where it is better understood through the related sociological term of moral panic."
I believe the irrational ideas and behavior you see exhibited at these town hall "spectacles" is attributable to the inability or refusal of many Americans - unlike Canadians and others - to study and grasp the relatively simple arithmetic of our health care crisis. But that poses another question.
How does this sort of irrationality take root and overcome a society? A few things come to mind:
A. population growth that exceeds a level that allows mechanisms of social coherrence to function (the U.S. is now #3 in population behind India and China.)
B. decline in the quality of education.
C. Concentration of power among those crafty enough to exploit A. & B.
If I were a Canadian citizen, I'd be pushing for a really big wall on my southern border.
AGG - Methinks that "hollowed out" is probably what you wanted to say.
I can't know for sure.
But even if you wrote "hallowed out" by typo accident, don't be bothered. It's far more accurate.
THE PROBLEM IS GULLIBLE PEOPLE.
A lot of lies have been thrown around by conservatives concerning discontent among Canadians regarding Canadian government-run health care. Insurance companies, their lobbyists, and the extremist political groups that they fund have been spreading nonsense about critically ill Canadians waiting for months to get primary care doctors’ appointments. Mentally challenged people who are fearful of any change in America have been parroting this propaganda and disrupting public healthcare forums in a do-or-die effort to block the latest of many attempts to enact critically needed Healthcare Reform.
This poll refutes all the negative right wing propaganda that has been put out for years by American health insurance companies and their anti-reform associates. They don't want a public option, because they don't want competition from government, and they fear that it will lead to single-payer socialized medicine in America, which would be one of the best things that ever happened to America. Unfortunately, conservatives have spent millions over many years to stigmatize the word socialize to the extent that it now strikes fear in the hearts of Americans who have blind faith in what they are told by right wing talk show terror mongers. They are terror mongers, because the more terrifying they make healthcare reform appear to the public, the more their audience increases, which drives up their all-important ratings, thus boosting their advertising revenue.
I have spoken to people from Canada and Europe who think that we are idiots for putting up with our current privately run healthcare system and the high cost of medical care and medicines in this country. Almost all European countries with industrialized capitalist economies now have government-run health care, and contrary to what millions of Americans believe, people in Europe are healthier than we are because of socialized healthcare, and they don't go into healthcare-related bankruptcy, because they don't lose their health insurance if they lose their jobs. It's time for Americans to wise up and start using their brains to question the misinformation that they get from TV and radio talk shows and from politicians who have received huge campaign contributions from health insurance companies and their lobbyists.
We can’t continue to allow a greedy group of companies and a gullible minority to sabotage needed reform of healthcare that the majority of Americans want. It’s time for the majority to speak up loudly in support of Healthcare Reform.
THE PROBLEM IS GULLIBLE PEOPLE.
A lot of lies have been thrown around by conservatives concerning discontent among Canadians regarding Canadian government-run health care. Insurance companies, their lobbyists, and the extremist political groups that they fund have been spreading nonsense about critically ill Canadians waiting for months to get primary care doctors’ appointments. Mentally challenged people who are fearful of any change in America have been parroting this propaganda and disrupting public healthcare forums in a do-or-die effort to block the latest of many attempts to enact critically needed Healthcare Reform.
This poll refutes all the negative right wing propaganda that has been put out for years by American health insurance companies and their anti-reform associates. They don't want a public option, because they don't want competition from government, and they fear that it will lead to single-payer socialized medicine in America, which would be one of the best things that ever happened to America. Unfortunately, conservatives have spent millions over many years to stigmatize the word socialize to the extent that it now strikes fear in the hearts of Americans who have blind faith in what they are told by right wing talk show terror mongers. They are terror mongers, because the more terrifying they make healthcare reform appear to the public, the more their audience increases, which drives up their all-important ratings, thus boosting their advertising revenue.
I have spoken to people from Canada and Europe who think that we are idiots for putting up with our current privately run healthcare system and the high cost of medical care and medicines in this country. Almost all European countries with industrialized capitalist economies now have government-run health care, and contrary to what millions of Americans believe, people in Europe are healthier than we are because of socialized healthcare, and they don't go into healthcare-related bankruptcy, because they don't lose their health insurance if they lose their jobs. It's time for Americans to wise up and start using their brains to question the misinformation that they get from TV and radio talk shows and from politicians who have received huge campaign contributions from health insurance companies and their lobbyists.
We can’t continue to allow a greedy group of companies and a gullible minority to sabotage needed reform of healthcare that the majority of Americans want. It’s time for the majority to speak up loudly in support of Healthcare Reform.
In Switzerland conservatives originally opposed establishing a national healthcare system. Now that it has been established there are few Swiss conservatives who would want to get rid of it.
Medicare is a form of government sponsored single payer and next to no one, Republican or Democrat, would promote getting rid of it.
Social Security is also taboo, though the Republicans attempted to undermine it with their "privatization" schemes.
The trend throughout the world has been toward universal care. Very few people in Europe or Asia would ever opt to trade their delivery systems for what we have here. Raising the Canadian and British systems as examples of failure is a fiction and a lie. The British would never trade what they have for what we have. And the British NHS withiin the past day or two came out with a rebuttal to all the rightwing criticism here in the US, having become sick of hearing it.
Our hurdle is to get a universal healthcare system established. Once established, if we are at all like the rest of the world, it too will become as fixed within the framework of our society as Medicare and Social Security. And taboo.
It's just getting the damned thing established. How anyone can defend the self serving leaches in the private health insurance industry is beyond me.
Conservatives may not be able to openly oppose the public system but don't think for a moment they are happy with it. They will do their best to starve it and to turn a blind eye to infractions.
Think back to when Harper was asked about Canadian health care during the three amigos summit - he ducked the question:
"While American debate rages over Canadian-style health care, Canada's prime minister is ducking the debate in order not to reveal his own feelings about a system most voters support wholeheartedly."
http://www.harperindex.ca/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=00229
Good point.
But I think once universal care is established, surmounting today's hurdles, it will become as accepted (hopefully) as Medicare and Social Security.
Yes, free market purists in this country tried to privatize Social Security, linking it to the stock market. They put their ideology above the health and viability of Social Security, and fortunately it wasn't "privatized." So long as the purists are around there will threats to these public systems. True enough. But an overwhelming majority of Americans support them, and I don't think it is too far out to believe national healthcare will be supported too. That is, if it is at all well established and administered.
Take a very good luck at the health care in the US and then think about it twice...