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| Canadian Medical Association Votes For Parallel Private System 2-1 |
| 2005-08-18 |
| The Canadian Medical Association threw its support behind a parallel, private health-care system Wednesday. In what was a historic vote for the influential organization, delegates decided by a two-to-one margin that patients should be able to go outside the public health-care plan and use private insurance if they can't get necessary medical care quickly enough. It's a major change for the association, which until now has been unequivocal in its support for a strong public system. The last time the CMA voted on such a motion was in 1996 when it reaffirmed its support. But times have changed, said those who supported the motion during the public-private debate, which was supposed to end Tuesday but was carried over to Wednesday - something that has never been done before at a CMA convention. Supporters of the motion said too-long waiting lists are an urgent problem, the system is faltering and it needs help from the private sector. "Governments have had 40 years to get the monopoly system right and the casualties are piling up - one of them has been my wife," said Dr. John Slater of Comox, B.C. "I have stopped believing in Santa Claus and I have stopped believing the government will ever fix the monopoly system." President-elect Dr. Ruth Collins-Nakai disputed that the medical association is endorsing private health care, as critics have charged. The primary concern of physicians of Canada is that patients have timely access to quality care based on need, not ability to pay, said Collins-Nakai, a pediatric cardiologist in Edmonton. Every resolution passed reflected the frustration of physicians not being able to provide that timely access to care that they so want for their patients, she said. "Delegates have said clearly that they believe the best solution is to provide that type of access is through a public health-care system," she added. Doctors have also adopted a list of "benchmark wait times," she noted. The list puts limited on how long patients should have to wait for key medical services such as cardiac care, cancer treatment or MRIs. Nakai-Collins noted the motion on private health insurance that passed Wednesday merely reflects a recent Supreme Court decision, which upheld the right of Quebecers to turn to private health insurance if the public system fails them. But she added: "Our feeling is that if the public system fails to provide timely care, then patients need to have alternatives. "And one of those alternatives may be the private sector," she said, stressing the word 'may.' Delegates have asked the CMA to prepare a discussion paper over the next six months outlining the range of options for patients if they don't get timely care in the public system, she noted. Representing Canada's future physicians, Dr. Ben Hoyt of the Canadian Association of Interns and Residents urged delegates not to support private health insurance as an option, saying it will lead to a two-tier system. "This motion clearly supports the development of a private health insurance system, a system in which the haves will be able to buy their way to the front of the line while the have-nots suffer in inappropriately long queues," Hoyt said. It also flies in the face of the basic principle the CMA adopted the day before - that access should be based on need, not ability to pay, he said. Endorsing private insurance lets governments off the hook, others argued. Many Canadians cannot afford private insurance or to pay for their treatment up front, or wouldn't qualify for coverage, they said. Harvey Voogd of the Alberta group Friends of Medicare said the doctors group has now clearly "embraced" private health care. "To say otherwise, I think, is a fallacy. It's like saying, 'I support marriage, but I'm not against adultery.' " Delegates also dealt with another important issue Wednesday. They passed a large batch of motions addressing the major shortage of physicians in Canada - the main reason for long patient waiting lists. Outgoing association president Dr. Albert Schumacher told reporters the government and medical licensing bodies must act quickly to get more doctors and nurses working. It could take a government investment of another $1 billion to deal with the crisis, he said. Drastically increasing the number of spots for residents, and spots for the thousands of immigrants with foreign medical degrees who need to get a year or two of training in a Canadian university, would go a long way in alleviating the problem, he said. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #2 a two-to-one margin |
| Posted by: Omaviting Flons4287 2005-08-18 23:06 |
| #1 They have a medical association with three voting members? Three members for 30 million people? No wonder the system is fucked up there, put some people on it for christ's sake. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2005-08-18 22:54 |