[andyt]

Lemmy Lemmy:

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

Healthcare is a Provincial responsibility. In this case, the responsibility of a Liberal government in BC.

In name only. The bulk of the dough comes from the feds. To a lesser degree, same with education.

Well, 25%, since Paul Martin cut transfers. And Harper has further capped transfers to a specific dollar amount, while costs keep rising. And BC certainly has a right wing govt that wouldn't mind private pay to come in at all, it only makes lackluster attempts to defend the public pay system. Anything to keep the tax load low, who cares if some people get fucked because of it.

[Brenda]

BTW, we don't necessarily need to privatize health care. We just need to have the option to go to the States. It happens all the time in Europe, that people go across the border for treatment, paid for by the insurance company you pay your mandatory premium to. Actually, they have people looking for the best option for you, and if that is abroad, you can go abroad.

[andyt]

Brenda Brenda:

When you have privatized healthcare (or partially privatized, or two tiered, or whatever you like to call it) you can insure yourself for that.

Why should you have to insure yourself for that? And, what if you can't get insurance because it's a pre-exising condition? The parents of this kid likely wouldn't have even thought of insuring for it until they knew about his condition. At that point - fuck you from the insurer, that's a pre-existing condition. No insurer is going to give you coverage for a condition with 100% certainty that it will need treatment. No insurer that wants to stay in business, anyway.

The US has overcapacity for treatment. It makes perfect sense for us to send our overflow to them on our MSP dime. Keeps our costs lower than if we build in more capacity and then find we don't need it.

[Brenda]

andyt andyt:

Brenda Brenda:

When you have privatized healthcare (or partially privatized, or two tiered, or whatever you like to call it) you can insure yourself for that.

Why should you have to insure yourself for that? And, what if you can't get insurance because it's a pre-exising condition? The parents of this kid likely wouldn't have even thought of insuring for it until they knew about his condition. At that point - fuck you from the insurer, that's a pre-existing condition. No insurer is going to give you coverage for a condition with 100% certainty that it will need treatment. No insurer that wants to stay in business, anyway.

The US has overcapacity for treatment. It makes perfect sense for us to send our overflow to them on our MSP dime. Keeps our costs lower than if we build in more capacity and then find we don't need it.

See the post above (we typed at the same time )

[OnTheIce]

Lemmy Lemmy:

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

Healthcare is a Provincial responsibility. In this case, the responsibility of a Liberal government in BC.

In name only. The bulk of the dough comes from the feds. To a lesser degree, same with education.

Only about 1/3 of the money comes from the Feds.

$1:

...the Canada Health Transfer, which includes cash and tax transfers given by the federal government to all provinces and territories.

In the fiscal year 2006-07, federal funding under the Canada Health Transfer was approximately $32.9 billion (source: Department of Finance Canada, Canada Health Transfers).

This represented approximately one-third of the total $98.8 billion spent by Canadian governments on health care in 2006 (source: Canadian Institute for Health Information, NHEX Trends: 1975-2006).

[Lemmy]

A quarter, a half, what's the difference? The fact is, if healthcare were truly a Provincial matter the system would collapse.

[andyt]

The only thing that keeps it from becoming a private system is the Canada Health Act. (No transfers necessary, void where not enforced by law.)

[OnTheIce]

Lemmy Lemmy:

A quarter, a half, what's the difference? The fact is, if healthcare were truly a Provincial matter the system would collapse.

That still doesn't negate the fact that healthcare is the responsibility of the Provinces as they manage it and cover 75% of the cost.

Surely a system which requires multiple levels of particpation would collapse if one went away.

Andy was trying to tell us that right wing governments are looking to starve the public system when the government in question is a Liberal government and the Federal right-wingers aren't shorting anyone with their transfers.

andyt andyt:

The only thing that keeps it from becoming a private system is the Canada Health Act. (No transfers necessary, void where not enforced by law.)

Implying that if there was no Canada Health Act, Harper would rape and pillage the health system? Come on andy...even you can't believe that.

Despite the fact that Harper didn't do to health care what Chretien and Martin did, there's still that need for lefties to fearmoger about Harper and all the bad things he might do.

Just waiting for the "Guns in our streets" adds to start up again....and the National Daycare Program too!

[Lemmy]

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

That still doesn't negate the fact that healthcare is the responsibility of the Provinces as they manage it and cover 75% of the cost.

Surely a system which requires multiple levels of particpation would collapse if one went away.

Fair enough. So would it be a good thing to petition Ottawa to keep their healthcare money, charge more Provincial tax and lower federal taxes? We could figure out the math pretty easily. Why ship dough to Ottawa to just turn around and ship it back? Doesn't make sense.

[OnTheIce]

Lemmy Lemmy:

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

That still doesn't negate the fact that healthcare is the responsibility of the Provinces as they manage it and cover 75% of the cost.

Surely a system which requires multiple levels of particpation would collapse if one went away.

Fair enough. So would it be a good thing to petition Ottawa to keep their healthcare money, charge more Provincial tax and lower federal taxes? We could figure out the math pretty easily. Why ship dough to Ottawa to just turn around and ship it back? Doesn't make sense.

I really don't have enough information on how the money is collected and divided to form an opinion either way, but I would suspect that optics alone in that scenario would leave rural areas convinced that they're being screwed.

[Regina]

In Ontario as is in the rest of the country, healthcare costs have dramatically increased due to the new and often very expensive drug therapies. Provinces are also to blame because they often delay approval for new generic drugs months after they have been approved by Health Canada, which would automatically save them 75% of the brand price. In cases like Lipitor the Ontario government paid over $5+ million per week more than they needed to if they would have copied Health Canada's approval date for the generics. Provinces are responsible for healthcare in Canada and must first do a better job before blaming the Feds.