Canadian Health Care We So Envy Lies In Ruins, Its Architect Admits

[Capt. Stamina]

Since it probably won't make the mainstream news. Article here.

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But no one will mention Claude Castonguay — perhaps not surprising because this statesman isn't an American and hasn't held office in over three decades.

Castonguay's evolving view of Canadian health care, however, should weigh heavily on how the candidates think about the issue in this country.

Back in the 1960s, Castonguay chaired a Canadian government committee studying health reform and recommended that his home province of Quebec — then the largest and most affluent in the country — adopt government-administered health care, covering all citizens through tax levies.

The government followed his advice, leading to his modern-day moniker: "the father of Quebec medicare." Even this title seems modest; Castonguay's work triggered a domino effect across the country, until eventually his ideas were implemented from coast to coast.

Four decades later, as the chairman of a government committee reviewing Quebec health care this year, Castonguay concluded that the system is in "crisis."

"We thought we could resolve the system's problems by rationing services or injecting massive amounts of new money into it," says Castonguay. But now he prescribes a radical overhaul: "We are proposing to give a greater role to the private sector so that people can exercise freedom of choice."

Castonguay advocates contracting out services to the private sector, going so far as suggesting that public hospitals rent space during off-hours to entrepreneurial doctors. He supports co-pays for patients who want to see physicians. Castonguay, the man who championed public health insurance in Canada, now urges for the legalization of private health insurance.
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Just maybe we can stop socialized medicine before it kills someone.

[DameGoode]

Ya know, I still haven't figured out how I feel about this...

Working with kids that are in foster care, they only get what the government allows. So, they are kinda in that government health care. I'm not sure how well they are medical-ly being cared for. But these kids have no parents or family to speak of, so is what they get better than nothing? Or could they get more? And would I be satisfied with my student's level of care to my own children?

I just don't know. I wish that there were more jobs out there, I wish that more jobs offered more health care, I wish that medical establishments would make it easier on employers to offer health care, and I wish that the medical community had more funding options open to them.

While I'm wishing, I would like a new carpet for my living room and my house in Cleveland to sell for the original asking price.