Quote:
Originally Posted by NuclearFart
Sorry Nehkara, I'm very well informed and I disagree with you. Cal-Gal has very articulately identified the true ignorance I hear all the time. Everybody is so quick to automatically assume that you give an inch and suddenly doctors take a mile and health care is suddenly run by mercenary doctors for hire. The fallacy of the slippery slope.
What people should really be discussing is the DEGREES of privatization, not this all or nothing mentality. Aspects of privatization are already here amongst us - "elective" vs. necessary surgical procedures, private MRI's/CT's....etc - so you are already seeing it in action. The public and private systems can coexist, provided there is some proper regulation. If you fear losing the best doctors to the private side, put a limit on their abilities to bill privately, or require a quota of public billing. Here you are providing some incentive to work extra, in addition to maintaing the public side. This is a better alternative than losing them all together to the US.
And to the guy (unabomber) whining about his doctor, he's not your secretary. He's probably doing the public more of a service treating 5 patients with real medical problems, rather than using that time to sort out the problems of the RGH patient records office (completely seperate from his own office). Not to mention he's only obligated to refer you to a vascular surgeon, not to set you up with the previous one, in the nicest hospital in town, as soon as possible for some surgery you might need in 5-6 years. Again, as per previous forum discussions, this overwhelming sense of entitlement some people have is a huge reason why public health care is in a crisis. You are part of the problem, get over yourself!!!
And your comment about not being able to launch a complaint? You're either completely ignorant or lying for the sake of sensationalism. Complaints are very easily made through our professional group - the college of physicians and surgeons - and taken very serious, leading to disciplinary action if warrented. Here, i'll even give you the link which took me 2 seconds to find on google:
http://www.cpsa.ab.ca/complaints/complaintprocess.asp |
There is always a breaking point though... the "straw that broke the camel's back".
Corporations seem to hold a lot of power over our government and if you let the huge American medical companies in the door, you will probably never get them out and they will push and push and push and push and push and push, etc, until they get their way (near-total privatization).
In my opinion it has already GONE TOO FAR. Universal health care is one of the things that makes this country great. It is the only system that works for everyone.
I don't think we can risk letting the American medical system anywhere near us... that country's health care is a total disaster. I want Canada to be as close to a polar opposite as possible.