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Razorguns
Well-known member
Wow. Simply Wow.
The SUPREME COURT of Canada delivered this. Paving the way for Blue Cross's and HMO to appear across the horizon.
Could this start a new age and revolution in Canada's under-serving, medical system?
We'll see how this goes. Looks like many who sit on their asses in Ottawa, will now be forced to "act" and fix it.
Kudos to common sense.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...54&t=TS_Home&DPL=IvsNDS/7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes
Top court delivers blow to medicare
DENNIS BUECKERT
CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - The country’s top court has delivered a powerful blow to Canada’s single-tier system of public health care, striking down a Quebec law that banned private insurance for medically necessary services.
Most experts, on either side of the debate, predicted the decision will lead to a parallel private system. But the federal government insisted there’s nothing to worry about.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled today that the Quebec ban on private insurance violates Quebec’s charter of rights.
The Canadian Medical Association called it a “historic” ruling that could “fundamentally change the health-care system in Canada as we now know it.”
In Quebec City, interim Parti Quebecois Leader Louise Harel said Quebec’s public health system is threatened and she urged Premier Jean Charest to defend it.
But federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler insisted the ruling doesn’t threaten medicare.
“On a first, quick reading ... the importance, the validity and the integrity of the public health-care system has been affirmed.
“The issue is really, how do we enhance a system that is acknowledged ... to be a valid system? How do we enhance it in terms of equal access and waiting times and the like, rather than say that this is an issue where we can’t enforce the Canada Health Act.”
Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh argued that governments can prevent the rise of private health care is by strengthening the public system.
“We are already on the way to doing that. That is the crux and the thrust of our approach.”
Prime Minister Paul Martin said the extra $41 billion his government is investing in health care will improve the public system.
Many disagreed.
“This is the end of medicare as we know it,” said John Williamson of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“This is a breach in government monopoly health care in this country.
“It’s going to open up litigation across the country in the other nine provinces as taxpayers there press for the same right which is the right to seek and buy insurance to cover private health care.”
Charest had no immediate reaction, saying he wanted to read the judgment.
The case involved Quebec doctor Jacques Chaoulli and his patient George Zeliotis who argued that the ban on buying private insurance for health care infringed on Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as the Quebec Charter of Rights.
Zeliotis said his year-long wait for a hip replacement in 1997 violated his right to life, liberty and security under the Canadian charter, and a similar guarantee in the Quebec charter.
The Supreme Court split on whether the law violated the Canadian charter, but four of the seven justices who considered the case ruled that it violated the Quebec charter.
Chaoulli has long campaigned for the right to set up a private medical business, and once went on a hunger strike over the issue.
Public opinion polls have shown strong support for single-tier health care, with service based on need rather than ability to pay.
Pro-medicare groups such as the Canadian Health Coalition say pressure to strike down the rules of medicare came from health-care companies that want new market opportunities.
But political figures such as Senator Michael Kirby have argued in favour of permitting a greater role for private care. Chaoulli and Zeliotis received support from for-profit clinics in the Vancouver area.
Two Quebec courts had already ruled against Chaoulli.
The SUPREME COURT of Canada delivered this. Paving the way for Blue Cross's and HMO to appear across the horizon.
Could this start a new age and revolution in Canada's under-serving, medical system?
We'll see how this goes. Looks like many who sit on their asses in Ottawa, will now be forced to "act" and fix it.
Kudos to common sense.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...54&t=TS_Home&DPL=IvsNDS/7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes
Top court delivers blow to medicare
DENNIS BUECKERT
CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - The country’s top court has delivered a powerful blow to Canada’s single-tier system of public health care, striking down a Quebec law that banned private insurance for medically necessary services.
Most experts, on either side of the debate, predicted the decision will lead to a parallel private system. But the federal government insisted there’s nothing to worry about.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled today that the Quebec ban on private insurance violates Quebec’s charter of rights.
The Canadian Medical Association called it a “historic” ruling that could “fundamentally change the health-care system in Canada as we now know it.”
In Quebec City, interim Parti Quebecois Leader Louise Harel said Quebec’s public health system is threatened and she urged Premier Jean Charest to defend it.
But federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler insisted the ruling doesn’t threaten medicare.
“On a first, quick reading ... the importance, the validity and the integrity of the public health-care system has been affirmed.
“The issue is really, how do we enhance a system that is acknowledged ... to be a valid system? How do we enhance it in terms of equal access and waiting times and the like, rather than say that this is an issue where we can’t enforce the Canada Health Act.”
Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh argued that governments can prevent the rise of private health care is by strengthening the public system.
“We are already on the way to doing that. That is the crux and the thrust of our approach.”
Prime Minister Paul Martin said the extra $41 billion his government is investing in health care will improve the public system.
Many disagreed.
“This is the end of medicare as we know it,” said John Williamson of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“This is a breach in government monopoly health care in this country.
“It’s going to open up litigation across the country in the other nine provinces as taxpayers there press for the same right which is the right to seek and buy insurance to cover private health care.”
Charest had no immediate reaction, saying he wanted to read the judgment.
The case involved Quebec doctor Jacques Chaoulli and his patient George Zeliotis who argued that the ban on buying private insurance for health care infringed on Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as the Quebec Charter of Rights.
Zeliotis said his year-long wait for a hip replacement in 1997 violated his right to life, liberty and security under the Canadian charter, and a similar guarantee in the Quebec charter.
The Supreme Court split on whether the law violated the Canadian charter, but four of the seven justices who considered the case ruled that it violated the Quebec charter.
Chaoulli has long campaigned for the right to set up a private medical business, and once went on a hunger strike over the issue.
Public opinion polls have shown strong support for single-tier health care, with service based on need rather than ability to pay.
Pro-medicare groups such as the Canadian Health Coalition say pressure to strike down the rules of medicare came from health-care companies that want new market opportunities.
But political figures such as Senator Michael Kirby have argued in favour of permitting a greater role for private care. Chaoulli and Zeliotis received support from for-profit clinics in the Vancouver area.
Two Quebec courts had already ruled against Chaoulli.
