GUEST COLUMN: "MEDICARE+PLUS"

By Garry Breitkreuz, MP (Yorkton-Melville)

November 20, 1995

On my tours of the constituency one of the issues which is a priority for everyone is Medicare. Hospital closures, cut-backs in funding and long, line-ups have everyone concerned about the future of our most cherished social program. Many of you will remember our promise during the 1993 election: "Reformers will maintain health care funding, and allow the provinces to make their health care systems more efficient and effective. No one should be denied health care because they can't afford it." Reform still stands behind this promise.

You will no doubt have heard our opponents say that the Reform Party will dismantle medicare and that we want a US-style system. One of the reasons I am writing this column is to put an end to these lies and to tell you exactly what our party's position is on health care.

In February 1995, the Reform MPs published "The Taxpayers' Budget" in which we renewed our commitment to continue federal funding for health care to the provinces at current levels. We said, "Under the Reform Plan, the federal government would move to decentralize these [health care] activities by ceding additional tax room to the provinces. The provinces would be expected to agree upon a common level of basic or "core" health services offered everywhere in Canada. At the end of this process the provinces would possess the revenue levers and flexibility necessary to fund education and health care according to the demands of their electorate and their fiscal constraints."

Consistent with these prior promises and commitments, we are now promoting a health care reform plan we call: "Medicare+Plus". First, Reformers affirm the value of Medicare. We agree that Canadians have one of the best health care systems in the world and Reformers want to keep it that way. Before we start any reform of our health care system we need to define medicare. Everyone agrees that Medicare was never planned or designed to cover 100% of the people, 100% of the time, for 100% of all medical procedures and pay 100% of the costs. Everyone knows that if you want a semi-private room in a hospital you have to pay more than if you stay in a ward. This is the two-tier system that Health Minister Diane Marleau is so busy denying exists when we all know that it does.

In our Medicare+Plus Plan, Reformers propose to define Medicare as: "Canada's comprehensive set of core national health care standards, publicly funded, portable across Canada, and universally accessible to all Canadians regardless of ability to pay." This means than a basic level of care would be available to everyone in every province whether they are rich or poor. Beyond this basic level of health care, Reformers advocate that Canadians have choices over and above Medicare (this is the Plus part of Medicare+Plus).

Reformers are saying everything Canadians currently value about Medicare will remain intact, PLUS Canadians will be able to choose health care options beyond Medicare. If Canadians feel they need extra health care beyond the basic level of Medicare provided by their provincial government, under a Reform government's Medicare+Plus plan, they will be able to choose the type of health care service they want and also the way they intend to pay for it. Canadians will choose the extra service they want and the method of payment - not government bureaucrats! Taxpayers may choose from a variety of payment options including: private health care insurance, user fees, co-payment plans, medisave plans, etc, and they may all exist - but only if Canadians choose.

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For example, under Reform's Medicare+Plus, some companies may offer medisave plans as attractive employee benefits to help finance privately-funded health care. Companies are achieving huge savings with medisave plans in other countries because the employer gives every employee a set amount of cash every year to cover medical expenses. If the employee doesn't use the money for medical expenses, they get to keep the balance at the end of the year. If the employee uses their cash and needs more money to cover their health care needs they are fully covered by the employer's health insurance plan.

Reform Health Critic, Grant Hill, MP for Macleod was recently quoted in the Calgary Herald when he challenged the Liberal's government defence of the status quo in medicare which promises more cuts in funding to the provinces and longer line-ups in our emergency rooms. "There are literally no countries in the world except for the socialist countries - North Korea and Cuba - that don't allow some choice between public and private health care. Sweden, Denmark, Germany - these countries have all got a public [medicare] system similar to ours and they offer a complimentary private system."

The federal government must respect the democratic free will of Canadians to choose for themselves how they wish to receive and pay for medical services. The federal government must also respect the provinces have the constitutional authority for providing health care under the constitution. To this end, Reformers advocate removing the shackles from the Canada Health Act which currently outlaws choices beyond medicare. If Canadians choose health care services from the private sector over and above medicare, so be it. If Canadians choose not to access services from private health care providers then only medicare as we know it will survive. Surely this is a choice for each Canadian to make, not by bureaucrats and politicians in Ottawa.

Allowing Canadians choices in how and where they are provided with health care services and how they choose to pay for these services is a Canadian solution to a Canadian health care problem.

Reform is not advocating taking anything away from Medicare - we are adding to it. If public and private health care can co-exist successfully in Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark and Germany, then there's no reason why we can't do it here in Canada.

I invite all voters in the Yorkton-Melville constituency to write me with your comments and your answer to this important question: Do you think Canadians should have the freedom to access health care beyond Medicare?

"MEDICARE CAN BE SAVED BY GIVING CANADIANS REAL CHOICES."

Garry Breitkreuz is a Reform Member of Parliament for the Yorkton-Melville constituency in Saskatchewan

If you would like more information on this issue please call his Ottawa office at (613) 992-4394, his Yorkton office at (306) 782-3309 or write him postage free: House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6