Stephen Harper Begins his Assault on Medicare

He has always wanted to strangle it. He has had to restrain himself for so long. 

From the moment he entered politics, with the support of an organization that was founded to destroy medicare.

But now at last his foul assault on our precious healthcare system has begun.

And it's both stealthy and  monstrous.

The Health Council of Canada will no longer receive money from the federal government to keep tabs on an expiring health-care deal between Ottawa and the provinces. The independent body is responsible for monitoring implementation of the 10-year, $41-billion health accord struck in 2004.

Because while the Cons claim that the Council's mandate is over, and that it's just a fiscal decision. What they are really trying to do is BLIND us to the state of our natural health system, so they can more easily DESTROY it.

Just like they are trying to blind us to the state of our environment, by closing down research stations, and muzzling scientists.



For if we don't know what's happening to our NATIONAL medicare system, how can we improve it?

The recent decision by the Government of Canada to cut funding to the Council is a failure of its responsibility to protect and strengthen Canada's health care system. Further, cutting the Health Council also means the loss of an important tool to monitor the performance of the health care system. How are we to transform the health care system to improve patient care if we can't measure what we're doing well and what we need to improve?

Or preserve it from those who are lusting to privatize it. Because trust me, they can see the boomers coming, and they want to milk them until they drop. Squeeze every last dollar out them until they die.

And in that regard the killing of the Health Council of Canada is a giant step backwards.Take it from the nurses who know our medicare system better than anyone.



"We are extremely disappointed with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to end support for the Health Council of Canada....Everyone in this country should be deeply concerned because the federal government is distancing itself from the health and health care of Canadians.

Or take it from my friends at Canadian Doctors for Medicare. 

“The federal government is no longer walking away from health care, it’s sprinting at full speed,” said Dr. Ryan Meili, vice-chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare. “Cutting funding to the Health Council means cutting information on sustainability, quality and efficiency of our health care system – information that Canadians should be able to expect from their government.”

Because their impulses are noble. And they love our precious healthcare system, and want to make it even better.

I've explained many times why Stephen Harper hates medicare. Because it embodies the softer, more caring values of the Canada he despises so much...



And I've also explained how he is planning to kill it. Not with a full frontal assault, but with a knife in the back. By making the provinces too poor to afford it.

By reducing transfers, just as the boomers start flooding into our hospitals. By forcing the provinces to pay more for services like retraining workers. By making them pay to house more prisoners. By throwing more and more unemployed Canadians off E.I. and on to provincial welfare rolls.

Sooner or later, the provinces, especially the poorer ones, will be forced to cry uncle. And the private health care vultures will move in. Just like they have in Britain, where the Cameron Cons are gutting the National Health System.

And forcing public hospitals to reserve 49 percent of their beds for private patients.



If you're rich, please come this way. If you're poor take a number, or second best.

Oh boy. You know when I'm in a hospital I see a lot of sad things. A lot of suffering, a lot of pain and fear. But I also see the best of humanity. The kindness, the caring, the joy of those who are getting better. The cheers when somebody's heart starts beating again. The wonderful wail of a newborn baby, who should have died but didn't. Because so many worked so hard to save it.

But for me the best sight of all is seeing Canadians treating everybody the same, whether they are rich or poor. For that's my Canada. My kinder, gentler, world.

And I do know this, the Cons have just stuck the first knife into the back of our precious medicare system. I can hear its quiet moans. I can see the blood pooling on the floor.

In my nightmares I can hear an old lady screaming: "Why won't they help me just because I have no money?" Or another poor person crying out: "I'm hungry. I'm hungry."

For let me be absolutely clear if we don't stop Harper and his gang of inhuman monsters, if we don't listen to the doctors and the nurses, if we allow the Cons to blind us, and condemn us to walk in the darkness.

As I've said so many times before.

We or our loved ones WILL end up in a horrible place.

In a country we don't recognize...



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