Like a hungry parasite, American-style private health care will slowly creep up on Canada until one day medicare is gone, replaced by a system where the physician has an eye on the bottom line and the patient pays the price.
This dire warning from Dr. Claudia Fegan, a Chicago doctor and past-president of the American lobby group Physicians for a National Health Program, received a standing ovation at the National Conference on Health Care in Saskatoon Feb. 8.
Fight for what you’ve got, Fegan urged, or risk losing it to a system where saving lives and getting well is a business that has little to do with people.
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“Canada made the right decision 30 years ago,” Fegan said. “Now don’t you dare let them poison your health care by coming up here to whisper in the ears of your legislators how it can work for you.
“Don’t turn your back and look the other way while they steal away your health care.”
Fegan, president of Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, is critical of for-profit managed care that offers “large bonuses for under-care, not excessive care.” Sick, poor and elderly people are hardest hit in a system where doctors are rewarded for discouraging services.
“If you turn it over to private companies they’re going to do what they’re supposed to do … make money, not save health care because it is not their job,” she said.
“Why would you expect a business to do anything else but make money?”
Hugh Armstrong, associate professor in the School of Social Work at Carleton University in Ottawa, said the takeover is already happening and Canadians aren’t doing enough to fight it.
“We’re supposed to be in a democracy. They’re dismantling medicare and we don’t seem to be objecting enough,” Armstrong told the conference.
Avoid American influence
Canadian medicare is already undergoing passive privatization, he said. The influence of American consultants on Canadian health reform should be feared the most.
“The big consulting companies are already setting up here with Canadian offices,” said Armstrong.
“The shift is toward more business-like practices where services are evaluated in revenue expenditure terms rather than the need for care.”
The invisible dimension of privatization is hidden in the shift from institutional to community-based care, which Armstrong describes as a false dichotomy. Going from the “bad” institution to the “warm and fuzzy” community service care will mean more unpaid work for women in terms of caring for seniors and children, he warned.
“The public needs to heed the warning,” Armstrong said.
“Health care is too important to leave to government.”
