Mr. Speaker, tonight I have the opportunity to say a few words about the state of health care in our country.
I notice with interest that at the Liberal convention coming up in a few hours there are a number of resolutions pointing out the concern of delegates from across the country attending the Liberal convention regarding the state of health care in Canada. They are pointing out that in their judgment some cases are actually at a crisis level. I think the Minister of Health actually used that word in a couple of comments in the last little while.
Overall it is fair to say that the Liberal government does not take health care seriously. Canada is now 17th among the 28 industrialized nations of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in public spending on health care. Between 1986 and 1997 the public portion of Canada's health tab declined from 77% to 70%. By 1999 it is expected to drop to only 60%.
Today private spending in Canada's universal public system exceeds the total of federal health care dollars. I might add that only 20% of Canada's health care funding now comes from the federal government.
Since 1986 Ottawa has slashed a total of $36 billion from health care according to Dr. Fuller of the Health Sciences Association of British Columbia.
I also want to mention that medicare's complete privatization appears to be the goal of at least two provincial governments these days, the governments of Alberta and Ontario.
I read with interest just a few days ago how impressed the B.C. Reform member for North Vancouver was at the service he received in a Florida hospital while he was on vacation. He said “It really put to shame what happens in Canada. I do not think there is any harm in having some competition. I know it is widely supported in my riding and there should be some competition to get efficiency into the system”.
As a result of these fiscal and ideological pressures on our system, privatization is well under way across the country. In Manitoba people with means to do so are hiring their own nurses to care for them in hospital. The fact they have to do this is a reflection of the crisis in our health care system.
Last week apparently with the blessing of the Alberta government, the Royal Bank of Canada and the Alberta Medical Association reached an agreement that will see patients able to charge uninsured medical services on their credit cards or debit cards right at the doctor's office.
I could go on at some length. I think it is fair to say that if there was a poll conducted across the country, Canadians everywhere would consider that we are in a crisis.
In conclusion, I simply want to say that health care in Canada has become a $75 billion marketplace. United States based international corporations armed with free trade agreements threaten to dominate the provision of services shortly with the support of some provincial governments, most large employers and a large section of organized medicine.
For profit companies are benefiting from government participation in joint ventures, lucrative contracts with ministries of health, outsourcing arrangements with hospitals, generous tax breaks for venture capital investors, access to medicare payments and direct grant allocations.
One could go on and on. I can summarize by simply saying our health care system is in serious trouble. Medicare is being challenged from coast to coast. It is time that the federal government took this issue more seriously than it is at the moment.