Don Martin: Alarms going off over health-care privatization? Such an out-of-touch waste of hot political air
Please, let’s not follow the same old formula.
That would be the traditional microphone-hogging parade of premiers whining on national television about having the constitutional responsibility of delivering health care without a fully paid-up federal partner.
That charade would be followed by the prime minister declaring his version of a funding fix for a generation, which will actually only buy a few years of quiet time before the bellyaching ramps up and the next health-care crisis begins.
But, sadly, this appears to be the set-up scenario for Tuesday’s opening round of health care-negotiations where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is badly in need of a political win at any cost these days, is set to deliver billions of new and conditional funding to provinces and territories before everything goes back to normal. Which is to say, broken.
There is, of course, no overnight monetary solution to the intractable problem of caring for an increasingly elderly and unhealthy population with dollars falling behind rising demand and inflation.
Every probe into improving health care over the last five decades has recognized and recommended urgent reforms. But the three wise men – Emmett Hall, Michael Kirby and Roy Romanow – have seen their decades-old recommendations for better efficiencies, less top-down administration, improved fee-for-service and changes to the way doctors are paid all kept inside a single-payer system, basically dusty-shelved.
And still age-old counterproductive realities remain – and worsen.
'A VICIOUS CYCLE'
Without improved home care, you can’t ease pressure on long-term care. If you can’t expand decent long-term care, you just fill up hospitals with people who shouldn’t be there. When regular hospital beds are full, patients overflow the emergency wards. And that leaves paramedics stuck with patients, some with minor ailments, until an overworked physician finds a corridor bed so they can return to their urgently-required ambulances.
And so it goes, a vicious cycle with sick Canadians dying for better care.
Even when staffing resources could be adequate, they’re wasted. Millions of Canadians are scrambling to find family doctors, for example, but those doctors are forced to spend far too much time on paperwork instead of patients. And they work under a compensation schedule which rewards bringing patients into their office for a paid appointment even when an unpaid text message or email response would suffice.
Meanwhile, doctor specialization is rewarded handsomely while family practice and psychiatry are not, despite similar training. Dangling a future as a general practitioner in rural Canada, where hours would be long and vacations short, is a hard sell in medical school.
And yet, what is the unholy holler about in the political realm ahead of Tuesday’s summit? Yup, five alarms going off over privatization.
Such an out-of-touch waste of hot political air that is. If you can’t access an emergency ward and don’t have a doctor, you head to a walk-in clinic which is, like most doctors in this country, a private enterprise.
If you need a hernia fixed in Ontario, chances are you’ll join the 7,000 others who go to the privately run Shouldice Hospital every year.
If you need cataract surgery in Alberta, you’ll probably go to the private Gimbel Eye Centre.
And if you want any diagnostic or scanning done quickly in Montreal, whip out your credit card and you’ll jump to the front of the line within days.
Privatization is a vintage bogeyman. Not only does a government-covered procedure in a private clinic not violate the Canada Health Act, but recent polling shows the public no longer sees the use of a for-profit provider as the axe coming down on the sacred medicare cow.
So here’s hoping Tuesday’s political parade goes off in non-traditional directions with premiers accepting strings on a fair federal settlement to reform, streamline and enhance this ailing system.
The Trudeau government has correctly identified the priority areas where the money should go and is right to demand a way to link their contribution to better results. If successful in these negotiations, Trudeau’s signature accomplishment awaits.
Premiers, in turn, understand they face a fed-up and aging population who see fixing health care as a non-negotiable, vote-defining demand.
The chances Tuesday will end with the blueprint to realistic long-term improvements are only marginally better than believing China’s balloon was simply collecting atmospheric temperatures, but it’s clearly time the 50-year-old dream of medicare as a Canadian birthright stopped being such a nightmare for so many patients.
That’s the bottom line….
IN DEPTH
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
'Democracy requires constant vigilance' Trudeau testifies at inquiry into foreign election interference in Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified Wednesday before the national public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada's electoral processes, following a day of testimony from top cabinet ministers about allegations of meddling in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Recap all the prime minister had to say.
As Poilievre sides with Smith on trans restrictions, former Conservative candidate says he's 'playing with fire'
Siding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on her proposed restrictions on transgender youth, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre confirmed Wednesday that he is against trans and non-binary minors using puberty blockers.
Supports for passengers, farmers, artists: 7 bills from MPs and Senators to watch in 2024
When parliamentarians return to Ottawa in a few weeks to kick off the 2024 sitting, there are a few bills from MPs and senators that will be worth keeping an eye on, from a 'gutted' proposal to offer a carbon tax break to farmers, to an initiative aimed at improving Canada's DNA data bank.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Police arrest 3 Indian nationals in killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
Suter scores late goal, clinches series for Canucks
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
TD worst-case scenario more likely after drug money laundering allegations: analyst
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
Quebec man who threatened Trudeau, Legault online sentenced to 20 months in jail
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Human remains found in rural Sask. possibly a decade old, RCMP say
RCMP say human remains found in a rural area in central Saskatchewan may have been there for a decade or more.
Britney Spears 'home and safe' after paramedics responded to an incident at the Chateau Marmont, source tells CNN
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Canadian doctor concerned new weight-loss drug Wegovy may be used inappropriately
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
Drew Carey is never quitting 'The Price Is Right'
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
Local Spotlight
Twin Alberta Ballet dancers retire after 15 years with company
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
Here's how one of Sask.'s largest power plants was knocked out for 73 days, and what it took to fix it
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
Quebec police officer anonymously donates kidney, changes schoolteacher's life
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Canada's oldest hat store still going strong after 90 years
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Road closed in Oak Bay, B.C., so elephant seal can cross
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
B.C. breweries take home awards at World Beer Cup
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Kitchener family says their 10-year-old needs life-saving drug that cost $600,000
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.