September 25th, 2008
An American investor, Melvin J. Howard, is suing the Canadian government, using NAFTA to allow him to establish a private surgical clinic in B.C.
Under little known Chapter 11 of NAFTA, government is not permitted to interfere in such a way as to give a corporate entity from one nation advantage over its neighbour.
Up until now, big American health corporations have not been permitted in Canada because of our single-payer system. Enter the False Creek Surgical Centre, which just happens to offer private health services, completely outside of the BC Medical Services Plan.
The surgical centre has operated in plain knowledge of the provincial and federal governments for years, and Howard’s argument is essentially that he is running into government roadblocks which Canadian private clinics do not have to face. He might have a very strong Chapter 11 argument, which will force the government’s hand into opening up the playing field to huge US corporate interests, the same machine which has left nearly 50 million Americans uninsured, that many again underinsured; and health bills are the most cited reason for personal bankruptcy in the US.
Is this what we want of our health care system?
The part that’s most aggravating is that this was a totally forseeable outcome. Canada has been in NAFTA for a long time, and the Prime Minister of Canada and Premier of BC are both smart enough to know the consequences of letting the surgical centre grow unchecked. It was no better than a red rag to a bull.
Kinda makes you think maybe they were turning a wilfully blind eye the whole time. Kinda makes you wonder what else is in NAFTA that we might get hammered with down the road.
Let ‘em know what you think:
Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper (Hmm, isn’t this guy up for re-election?)
Premier of British Columbia, Gordon Campbell
(A big shout out to all my homies over at Canadian Doctors for Medicare and their blog for tipping me off.)
Thanks Rob. I hope Canadians realize that the investors disappointed by not getting their share of the loan bubble before the it burst will be looking for fresh meat. Canadian health care is a new target. Watch out!
Here’s an interesting website based on an idea called “Vote swapping” where you vote strategically to prevent a certain political outcome:
http://www.voteforenvironment.ca/
The Internet is moving into a new stage. We have been able to have open and free discussion for some time. Now we can effectively organize political action in appealingly simple and intuitive ways.
I’ll vote for that!
It’s not clear what you’re advocating people to say to the PM and Premier.
The thing is, if there was no market for private health services, they would have filed for the other Chapter 11 and closed. The problem’s not that the government let them set up shop, but that our health care system is so overburdened that a business like this can flourish.
You’re right that I haven’t urged a particular opinion on people, although surely mine is fairly clear on the issue. You’re also right that the public system is overburdened at present, but don’t be fooled into thinking that things must be this way.
There was a time, from about the mid-60sto the mid-80s, when the Canadian publically funded system had new hospitals, lots of health-care workers, and enormous capacity.
The decline of the system is largely a function of political choices and is thus, in my view, a false scarcity. This is the result of a very specific political point of view which advocates free market solutions and maligns public solutions. It began with the rise of Thatcher, Reagan, and Mulroney, continued through Clinton, Blair, Chretien, and now Bush and Harper.
Here’s how it works. You can’t say you’re opposed to universal health care in Canada. That is political suicide. What you do once elected is chronically underfund it and then plead that the treasury cannot afford it. Keep doing that until people get so fed up with the crappy public system you create that they flock to your private market cure.
Remember, even the US had much more public funding of healthcare from FDR’s New Deal until the Nixon adminstration paved the way for private corporations. Many of us under such a system would be unable to afford healthcare, and we would be the ones filing bankruptcy.