Stephen Harper and the Final Assault on Medicare

It's been less than two months since the Cons let the Canada Health Accord expire. And the corpse is still warm.

But I see that Stephen Harper is in a hurry, and has given the order to begin the second phase of his plan to kill medicare. 

The federal government today launched an advisory panel on health-care innovation aimed at improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of Canada's health system. Health Minister Rona Ambrose announced the official launch of the panel in Toronto as members held their first meeting to discuss how various innovations could bring the greatest value to Canada's health-care system.

Because just one look at who is on that panel should tell you that when they talk about "innovation" what they really mean is PRIVATIZATION. And the end of medicare as we know it.

And it's just what David Cameron and his ghastly Cons did in Britain. Promise to discuss ways to improve that country's National Health System...



Only to begin demolishing it.

Privatizing it beyond belief.

And killing it slowly quickly...



And while the Cons in this country attack medicare by preparing to cut transfers to the provinces, and convening panels to suggest ways of privatizing it.

A group called the Canadian Constitution Foundation, spearheaded by Dr. Brian Day the owner of a for profit clinic, is preparing to mount a court challenge that could undermine the very idea of medicare.



Canadians are at risk of losing Medicare as we know it. Dr. Brian Day, owner of Vancouver’s for-profit Cambie Surgery Centre and a leading proponent of privatized health care, has launched a constitutional challenge to Medicare law in BC. He argues that if you have the money, you should have the right to buy your way to the front of the line.

The case is being called the most significant constitutional challenge in Canadian history. The trial date is now set for September 2014.

Even though it would cause massive suffering for those who can't afford private health care.

Allowing some patients to pay for faster care does not take the pressure off the public system, as many have argued. Doctors can only take care of one patient at a time, and when they are serving rich private patients first, they are not available to serve the rest of us, even when our need is greater.

While the elite might get faster care, an abundance of evidence shows that for-profit hospitals reduce access to care for everyone else.

And even though polls show Canadians want their precious medicare system, this country's greatest collective achievement, improved not DESTROYED.

Canada does not need health reform through an end-run in the courts that’s driven by for-profit clinic owners. What we need is evidence-based improvements to reduce wait times in emergency rooms and for elective surgeries. And that means we need government leaders who are committed to improving medicare. Poll after poll shows that Canadians favour investment and innovation in publicly funded health care to improve the system, not the expansion of a profit-driven system that benefits the few and harms the many.

But the big push is on. The health care for cash lobbyists are circling over this country like grubby vultures. And many of them have flown north from the United States.

Where they have spent millions lobbying lawmakers, or trying to make their own citizens believe that health care and government are something DIRTY...



And they are now preparing to do the same thing in Canada, with the stealthy support of Stephen Harper and his foul un-Canadian regime.

And the scariest part is that most Canadians have absolutely no idea what's going on. Our useless opposition parties aren't doing enough to warn them.

So all we can hope is that they listen to messages like this one...



And all I can say, especially to the older Canadians who keep voting for the Cons, is don't do that again if you know what's good for you.

For you can't imagine how much you will suffer, if you don't defeat the monstrous regime, and its depraved leader.

Trust me, I know.

Vote as if your life depended on it.

Because it really does...



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