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Roy Romanow and Dr. David Gratzer |
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Troubling dispatches from the health care front |
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Ottawa - Friday, August 2, 2002 - by: Walter Robinson, Federal Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation | |
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reform |
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26% rate |
A poll commissioned by the Canada Information Office (aka: government propaganda central) found that 53% of Canadians rank health care as their top issue. But only 26% of respondents rated Ottawa’s performance on this file as ‘good.’ |
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suspect |
So even if Mssrs. Kirby and Romanow produce substantive and workable reform packages, Ottawa’s moral suasion to implement and lead this change is highly suspect. |
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10% missing |
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absurd |
One can envision the conversation between a doctor and a patient.
Doc: |
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opponents |
Yes the health care debate has become more vigourous. Sadly, those who remain oblivious to what other countries (who face the same challenges of rising drug costs, an ageing population and mammoth public expectations) mask their myopia with rhetoric aimed at others who dare to ‘think outside the box.” Consider this text from a paper authored by Liberal policy icon Tom Kent for the Caledon Institute. |
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Thanks Mr. Kent, is Elvis behind this conspiracy as well? | |
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demolish |
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goofball |
As for innovative solutions such as medical savings accounts, we can only hope folks don’t place too much stock in a recent study published in the Canadian Medical Association journal paper denouncing their use. A simplistic analysis conducted by University of Toronto professor Raisa Deber (and others) concludes they can’t work in Canada. |
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success |
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junk |
Mr. Romanow has commissioned 40 major research papers to aid the work of his commission. Hopefully these works will surpass the junk science level of this anti-medical savings accounts paper. Next week we’ll look at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation prescriptions for health care reform. |
Walter Robinson Federal Director |
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References: | |
Communications Canada, Spring 2002 report on their survey work to download the complete 1.2MB PDF | |
Canadian Health Coalition web site, Toronto Star January 2001 story by Thomas Walkam, Hasty diagnosis; Influential senators are quietly making a case against medicare as we know it. Their problem, though, is an absence of facts | |
Canadian Medical Association web site "Whither the Medical Equipment Fund? to download the 79K PDF file that examines the spending by provincial governments of the Federal fund established to upgrade hospital equipment. | |
Caledon Institute of Social Policy | |
Medicare to Home and Community Research Unit welcome by Raisa Deber. | |
Evelyn L. Forget, Raisa Deber, Leslie L. Roos, Medical Savings Accounts Will the reduce cost? July 23, 2002, Canadian Medical Association | |
You can see and hear Dr. David Gratzer making a presentation in Winnipeg, this is a streaming video of his presention. | |
Editor's Note: Dr. David Gratzer is the champion of the "Free Market" economy people and the American private medical care supporters. Medicare is primarily a political, not an economic issue with political dogma and predispositions almost always matters of "faith". |