Let's put nurses in charge of fixin' healthcare?

[Guest eureka]

As I understand it, Sparhawk, if that comes under the trade articles, American Lae is the arbiter. We could not set the rules in advance. Consider the bottled water suit in B.C.

[mirror]

This is the stark reality in the difference between private and public health care.

The rich live and the poor die.

I prefer our Canadian system thank you!

Marooned doctors plead 'Please help us'

[Argus]

This is the stark reality in the difference between private and public health care.

The rich live and the poor die.

I prefer our Canadian system thank you!

Marooned doctors plead 'Please help us'

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Uh, this has nothing to do with rich and poor. It has to do with poor emergency planning and lack of resources and preparation. Had such a disaster happened in Canada things would be no better, for we have done virtually nothing to prepare for any kind of national emergency, and would totally unable to respond to something like hurrcane Katrina.

[err]

Then don't vote Liberal... And don't vote Conservative, because they think that the Liberals haven't cut enough from health care..

You were going to give me a cite to support that statement about the Conservatives, were you not?

The conservatives, in the last election, stated that Martin "had not cut enough"

In other words, they never said the Liberals should have cut more from health care. You simply made that up.

Harper said that Martin hadn't cut enough.... Maybe he didn't specifically say "from health care"... but that's one of the areas that Martin had to rob to give his cronies (Corp-Canada) their tax break...

And in terms of inflation adjusted dollars, % of GNP, or just about any other way you want to look at it, we're spending less than in the 70's....

You mean the 70s when the reigning philosphy of federal fiscal management was to simply borrow whatever was needed and let someone else pay it back at some future time? Health care spending is consuming ever greater percentages of provincial budgets. Are you suggesting all of them - incuding the NDP ones, have been run by evil "neocons" who don't care about public health care?

I take it from the first sentence in your answer that you agree that they're spending less on health care than they used do... It sort of tears a little hole in your argument about "throwing more and more money at health care" doesn't it??... when you've as good as admitted theyre spending less.

Our fearless Liberal and Conservative leaders say "no, we cant keep throwing money at it"... "it costs too much"... etc... but at the same time, they're cutting taxes to corporate Canada... deep cuts... and because these cuts have taken revenue from the coffers... "there's just not enough"... 

You know, you don't have a lot of credibiilty on these issues. Maybe you should try and cite someone more reliable on tax cuts and health care spending. I haven't seen a lot of tax cuts lately, not ones which have anyone shouting hurrahs.

Duh... are you Corp-Canada... because they've been getting massive tax cuts.... I haven't, and from what you say, neither have you. But Paul Martin cut transfers for health care and for education so that he could give Corp-Canada more tax breaks every budget.

In any event, corporations are soulless entities. They are, however, owned by individuals - their stockholders. Corporations have only two things to do with profits; pass them on to their stockholders, who can be taxed, or put them back into increased production and expansion - which means more jobs. So tax cuts for corporations aren't neccesarily a terrible thing.

When you steal from the poor to give to the rich... as Paul Martin has done since day one... there's something wrong.. The only ones to benefit from the Corp tax-cuts are the stockholders.... which usually comprises a minute percentage of the tax base... everybody else loses... Giving a corporate tax break is the same thing as writing them a cheque... And where does the government look to find the money to re-coup this money.... at your pay cheque... that's where.... and at the services that our existing tax pays for.... by removing some of them, they can afford to give bigger tax breaks to that minute section of our population...

[err]

And then you have the Mike Harris Tories in Ontario, who knew they were in big trouble due to their "tax cuts", having cut over 8000 nurses jobs in Ontario, decided that they'd show the public that they were committed to health care spending.  So they gave construction contracts to Tory-friendly construction companies to tear down a few hospitals... build a few hospitals, put on a few new wings on hospitals...  One of our biggest health-care providers was Ellis-Don Construction if you went by dollar value....  The money didn't go to doctors, nurses and MRI machines... 

Oddly enough, you need to build walls in order to house those machines and doctors. The Harris philosophy was to close down under-utilized facilities and systems and put the money elsewhere. I had no problem with that then and I still don't. The construction went to government friendly firms? What a surprise!

You say that we can't just keep throwing money at health care.... OK... they've got tons of hospitals, but not enough doctors, nurses, or equipment... The Tory solution is to change the number of hospitals, but not address the health-care professional shortage. Buildings don't do heart transplants or give radiation treatments... as far as I can tell, the new buildings can't even stitch up a small cut... Our existing emergency rooms are badly understaffed... that's why you have to wait so long....

They aren't spending more, they're spending less, and trying to give the impression that our health care system is emptying the cookie jar... even though corporate Canada now needs dental care for all the cookies they got out of the same jar....

Yes, it's all a grand conspiracy, all those evil Tory and Liberal governments over the past thirty years (we won't mention the NDP ones) in collusiion to benefit the evil rich.capitalists! We need a revolution, comrade! Down with the aristocrats! Power to the people!

How about accountability on the part of our government.... We need to fix a broken and corrupt system... I think that electing the NDP next time will certainly shake up what we've become complacent with....