Mr. Speaker, Motion No. 3 put forth by the NDP member is something we do not agree on. I am not going to support it. As my colleagues mentioned before very eloquently, it speaks to a larger involvement in the federal government in an issue, according to our Constitution, that is a provincial issue.
I would like to get to the heart of this problem on health care. It is something that has been used for decades as a political football in this country. If you defend the status quo you are looked on as being a white knight, a hero. This government and other governments have done that. They have said they champion the Canada Health Act, that we have the best health care system in the world and anyone who disagrees with that is bad, an enemy of the poor, an enemy of health care and wants a U.S. style health care system.
That is absolute and utter nonsense. The cold hard reality in our country today is that health care is not being provided to Canadians at a time when they need it. In our country from coast to coast, from emergency departments to operating theatres, from old age homes to chronic care facilities, to out-patient departments, Canadians are not getting their health care when they need it. The reality is there simply is not enough money in the system.
Certainly cuts have had to be made. They were made wisely and they were made judiciously. Cuts are continuing to be made today. They are not cutting the fat out of the system, they are cutting into the muscle and bone of a system that Canadians rely on in their time of greatest need.
When you are sick and realize that our health care system is not there for you, you do not have time to politically lobby because you are fighting for your life. This government and previous governments have stayed with the status quo in spite of the fact that Canadians are not getting their health care system when they need it.
People who are old and in need of a new hip and are in severe pain wait a year and a half for that new hip. People who need a simple 20 minute surgery on their wrist wait nine months to get that surgery. People who are elderly and need new knees will wait nine months to a year. People who need bypass surgery can wait six months. People are waiting two days to get into the intensive care unit while they sit in emergency departments or, worse, they sit waiting for a bed in a cold, dark hallway in a hospital. By any stretch of anyone's imagination that is not health care when a person medically needs it.
There is a myth put forward that we have enough resources in the system that people are getting their health care when they need it and the Canada Health Act and its five principles are being upheld. That is completely untrue.
Canadians are not getting their health care in a timely fashion. Furthermore, if you have the bucks, you get the health care. Twenty-five per cent of the money that is spent today in health care comes right out of the pockets of people. It is money that is paid by them to get health care. If you do not have the money, you do not get the service. These involve surcharges for physiotherapy and they involve extra charges for a wide variety of services.
This is the most graphic example of the multi-tier system we already have. If a person is injured and on workers compensation, the government will take their money. The workers compensation board will pay to have that person put at the head of the line in a public system to get his or her surgery done ahead of somebody else who is not injured in a WCB case. In other words, preferential treatment is given to those on WCB.
The system we have today favours the rich and compromises the poor. The examples I gave demonstrate very clearly that Canadians are not getting their essential services when they need them, which demonstrates again that the Canada Health Act principles are being violated in a most egregious fashion. In the rich country we have today we do not have to accept that. There are solutions and ways to make a better Canada Health Act system, a made in Canada health act system that enables Canadians to get their health care when they medically need it.
We do need more resources in the system. Critics from the other side say there is enough money in the system right now. When pressed for answers, they can only say that we need to put more efficiencies into the system. No other specifics are forthcoming.
We have to face the facts that not enough resources are in the Canada Health Act today to provide for the services Canadians need. When we look into the future, when we see a population that is getting older as demographics change, when we see how few people will be in the workforce, we recognize there will be fewer resources available.
How do we provide the resources to provide the essential services Canadians need without raising taxes, because raising taxes is not an option? If we amend the Canada Health Act to allow private clinics and private services where only private moneys are exchanged, completely separate from the public system and where there is no interchange, then people would have an option. They would be able to access the public system when they chose to and access the private system when they wanted to. There would be no mixing.
That way two separate systems would be created and there would be more money on a per capita basis in the public system, as some people would take some of their services into the public system. In other words, there would be more money in health care in Canada without raising taxes. The people who chose to be in our public system would get better health care than we have today.
Is it unequal? Yes. I would argue that first of all we have an unequal system today. Is it not better to have an unequal system that provides for better health care access for all people than the system we have today that provides for unequal access, particularly for the poor?
The rich will always be able to get health care when they need it, for they go south. In fact, we spend over $1 billion a year south of the border for health care that should be given here.
If we were to amend the Canada Health Act, if we were to allow private clinics and private medical services in an entirely private setting where there is no mixing of the private and the public, not only would people have a choice, not only would all Canadians have better access to health care, but we would also bring patients from the United States to buy their services here at two-thirds the price of services in the United States. This would provide for employment, nurses, physicians and health care personnel. In other words, we would be able to drag a huge amount of capital from the United States and have it spent in Canada, which would dramatically create a lot of jobs.
We do not need to throw the baby out with the bath water. We do not want an American style health care system which is deplorable in many ways. We want to make sure that people in our country, particularly those who are poorest, will have access to health care when they need it.
Good health care is not waiting a year and a half to see an orthopaedic surgeon. Good health care is not waiting nine months to have a 20 minute operation so a person can go back to work. Good health care is not being turfed out of hospital 24 hours after having a baby. Good health care is ensuring that Canadians get the health care services they require in an affordable fashion and in a medically necessary and timely fashion.
That is what the Canada Health Act is all about. These are the principles that were wisely fought for decades ago. These are the things we stand for as Canadians. However, that is not what is happening out there today in our country.
For heaven's sake, I ask the government to please listen to alternative solutions in order to build a better, made in Canada health act.