Freedom Flyer 29

A 1983 publication called Preserving Universal Medicare, by Monique Begin, then the federal health minister, revealed problems with government delivery of that service. At that time, I accurately described the medicare scene in the London Metro bulletin:

"Medicare in Canada has become the object of a national shouting-match; federal politicians bicker back and forth with their provincial counterparts about the sharing of ever-escalating costs; the health-care bureaucracy and the man in the street castigate the 'wicked' doctors for daring to extra-bill or require user fees; doctors, in their turn, resent growing government intrusion into matters medical; and above all the chaos, hell-bent for election on her white medicare charger, rides Monique Begin, who by advocating further coercive legislation, seeks to paper over the cracks, end the tumult, and restore domestic tranquillity."

Twelve years later, it's deja vu: It was chaos and coercion then; it is confusion and compulsion now. And it could not have been otherwise, given the totalitarian origin of our health system. In the 1880s, as part of a plan to create a special brand of socialism for Germany, Otto von Bismarck introduced government medical care, and before the end of the century had put in place all the other apparatus of the welfare state. His avowed purpose was to make all Germans so dependent on their government they would obey, without question, any order of the Kaiser and his military machine.

It is a bitter irony those very 'isms' (socialism, communism) we then fought against have entered Canada through the back door, giving us a system that can only be described as a semibenevolent fascism. No wonder we're in trouble.

consider the defects of OHIP, a poor excuse for a health insurance plan, bereft of all essential actuarial principles such as (1) a premium that covers payout; (2) a premium that reflects experience; and (3) a deductible that would require Canadians to pay directly for ordinary day-to-day medical expenses. Our first priority should be restoration of these principles.

Let's set up a "Canadian assistance with medical expense organization," a private agency to (a) pay premiums for those unable to do so, and lb) protect everyone against medical catastrophe. Finance this by allowing taxpayers to give to it, say, 10 per cent of their income tax payable for a 100-per-cent tax credit.

Canadians would accept these changes, since we are already used to the deductibles required by the companies that insure cars or houses. We understand without that deductible, first-dollar coverage would be unaffordable. Since the inception of our flawed medicare system, it has declined year by year, staggering from crisis to crisis. and will continue to do so until corrective measures are introduced.