NB Telegraph Journal, Opinion Section

Published Wednesday May 28th, 2008

Medical tourism just privatization

It seems like every time I open my newspaper these days, Dr. Brian Day has another brilliant idea to save our health-care system (Province could reap from medical tourism). Unfortunately each one entails some form of privatization. If history serves me right, it was Dr. Day's American counterparts, The American Medical Association, that effectively stopped the U.S. from adopting a public health-care system when every other civilized country did, post-Second World War. The Canadian Medical Association was the biggest opponent to Tommy Douglas's public health-care initiative. Thank goodness Canada's politicians did not cave. The U.S. currently has 30 million uninsured people, equal to the entire Canadian population, and many more that are underinsured. Is it any wonder I harbour a distrust for Dr. Day's brilliant ideas?
LINDA WILHELM
Midland