Letter to the Editor published in the Victoria Times Colonist, 10 June 2005
Lobby groups for private health corporations, such as the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and the Canadian Healthcare Association, are celebrating the Supreme Court ruling supporting private insurance. They have called this decision ‘historic.’
Taking a long-range approach to Canadian history, this decision signifies a retreat to an older model of health-delivery, based on ability to pay. Under this system, which existed in this country until the 1960s and has always existed in the United States, the wealthy receive top quality healthcare while the poor are denied adequate services. At the same time that Tommy Douglas is celebrated as the ‘greatest Canadian,’ the healthcare model he helped establish is being dismantled by governments, courts, and the corporate sector.
Rather than applaud the Supreme Court decision, as the private health lobby desires, Canadians should be ashamed and appalled by complicity of their judiciary in the privatization agenda . More importantly, they should be mobilized into action to force the federal government to strengthen legislation protecting public Medicare—and provide the resources needed to ensure a top-quality, single-tier system.
