Liberals accuse Gary Mar of secret agenda to destroy medicare, Mar denies it, Canada
The Canada Health Act protects the country's medicare system. Gary Mar, Alberta's Health Minister is counteracting Paul Martins' (Liberal Leader) allegations by saying he is going to release portions of the plan sooner. Mar stated he has no plans at all to do away with the Canada Health Act.
The whole thing blew up when Alberta's Premier, Ralph Klein, said he would reveal the reforms two days after the elections. The Liberals immediately said that this was because the reforms contained things they did not want to tell people about before the elections i.e. doing away with medicare. Klein even went on to say that parts of his reforms may go against the Canada Health Act.
Paul Martin accused Klein of secretly helping Stephen Harper, Conservative leader. As election day looms closer, Martin has become more vociferous in his attacks on the Conservatives. He says the Conservatives are a threat to medicare, citing Klein's statements as proof of this. Martin challenged Harper to protect the Canada Health Act and stand up to Klein.
Harper says he has never talked to Klein about his health care plans. He went on to say that any clear violation of the Health Act would not be acceptable. He defined, as a clear violation of the Act, any system which planned to have 'a two-tier system, a private, parallel system'.
On Tuesday Mar said "I can tell you categorically that there are no plans for a two-tiered health care system in the province of Alberta."
Mar did not go as far as saying that private companies would not have a greater role to play in running the country's health care system. He also said he had nothing to hide from the people regarding his plans for health care. He said "There are no bogeymen, there are no hidden agendas-we're prepared to be completely transparent on what we're moving forward on."
Countries with national health services such as Canada and the UK are becoming more and more embroiled in the two-tier argument whenever they try to look at ways of improving their health care systems. In the UK, the arguments are nearly identical. The consumer/patient/voter looks on as politicians talk about what's best for them. Reformers talk about choice while old die-hards put fear into the people by talking about the dismantling of universal health care. In the USA there is more choice, but the USA has more people without any health cover at all than the whole population of Canada.
Gary martie acuza liberalii de secret de ordine de zi pentru a distruge Medicare, Mar-l refuzã, Canada - Liberals accuse Gary Mar of secret agenda to destroy medicare, Mar denies it, Canada - articole medicale engleza - startsanatate