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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
 Posted - 07/18/2007 : 08:12:25
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A Canadian Physician writes about the problems with U.S. and Canadian health care:
Behind the mask of "health-care reform" and "restructuring," the Canadian medical system has been handed, piece-by-piece, to private industry in a manner similar to the dismantling of Britain's National Health Service — publicly-provided health care is under-funded to the point of crisis, then denigrated for its inadequacies. The private sector is proclaimed the only possible savior, and opponents are ridiculed as old-fashioned and sentimental. When the market fails to deliver, we are told we must adapt to "the new reality."(5)
The strongest opposition has come from organized health-care workers. Canadian hospitals, which by law must be non-profit institutions, became a battleground as unionized workers resisted wage cuts and contracting-out of housekeeping, information systems, food preparation, laboratory and other services to private, non-union companies.
In 1981, Ontario hospital workers launched a province-wide strike, defying back-to-work legislation and the jailing of union leaders. Unwilling to broaden its challenge to neoliberal social policy, the union caved and the strike was defeated. Many small, local hospitals were closed. Others were merged into giant conglomerates managed by business consultants.
Privatization has decimated services. Families stagger under the burden of sick, injured and frail relatives who were previously cared for in hospital, rehabilitation and chronic-care facilities. In-home nursing care is scarce or pricey.
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I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Sick and Sicker - Canada's Single Payer System
