CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:
HEALTH CARE ACTION IN SAGUENAY:


Yesterday, November 6, the Collectif Emma Goldman of the Québec UCL, along with the student employee's union of the University of Québec in Chicoutimi organized a demonstration against the privatization of health care and fees for service. The following is translated from the original French at the Québec City Voix De Faits Blog. More details and photo reportage are available at the Collectif Emma Goldman site.
@C@C@C@C@C@C


Action In Saguenay


The comrades of the Collectif-Emma Goldman (UCL-Saguenay) and the Union of students employed by the University of Québec at Chicoutimi organized a demonstration on Saturday, November 6 action against fees for service and the privatization of health care.

About fifty people gathered outside the hospital in Chicoutimi. Hundreds of leaflets, stickers against the privatization of health and the Cause Commune Express Newspapers were distributed to passers-by and motorists. This action was intended to oppose the last budget tabled by the Minister Bachand and the gradual commodification of health, through fees for service and privatization.

"The " health franchise " of Minister Bachand is a real shame. Quietly what they want with this kind of measure is to introduce into popular opinion that the idea that everyone should pay for health care. We are going back to 50 years ago. Moreover, on November 1st, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of universal health insurance. The idea behind the scheme was to ensure universal quality free health care to everyone funded through a progressive tax. "The Charest government is taking the ax to an important part of our gains and our struggles ", said Stephen David Bellemare, President of the Student Employees' Union of the University of Québec at Chicoutimi.

Stephane Turcotte, spokesman for the Collectif Emma Goldman:

"Over the last thirty years we have seen attacks by successive governments, whether Liberal or PQ. Anything that is not beneficial to economic growth is considered unnecessary. Education, health care, social programs, public services in general are all affected by this ideology of capitalist profitability. These attacks are occurring throughout the West. Greece, Spain, England, France, everywhere they ask workers to tighten their belt when we know that all these governments have given billions of dollars to banks. It is an international struggle, we must never forget that. "

"Always in the service of the rich and business, this government despises the working class and poor. Charest and his cronies have chosen their camp for a long time and it is not ours. The government is working hard to destroy everything that was built in the public interest to ensure a society that is a little more fair and equitable ", Stephen David Bellemare expressed indignently.

==> More details and pictures on the blog of the Collectif Emma Goldman

CANADIAN POLITICS QUÉBEC:

AGAINST THE QUÉBEC BUDGET:

On November 6 there will be a demonstration against the new Québec budget and its attack on health care in that province. Here`s the notice from the Collectif Emma Goldman. The original French version is at their site.

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November 6: Action in Chicoutimi against the budget and the commodification of health care



After holding a public meeting in Chicoutimi on the question " Liberal Budget: How to roll back government? " on October 21, the Collectif Emma Goldman now invites you to take action with us on November 6 to say no to the commodification of health care, with expected increased costs previewed in the last budget and the privatization of public services.

- We believe it is essential that all human beings can enjoy equal access to quality public health care .
- We believe that the Government has been contemptuous of health personnel in its negotiations of the Common Front and we support their struggle.
- We are supportive of the social movement on pensions in France and support their Day of Disturbance also on November 6.

We will be holding a picket and a press briefing:
Saturday, November 6, 14.00, Chicoutimi
Corner of Jacques Cartier and Sydenham, near the major seminary

Re-launching the fight, our health is not for sale!

Collectif Emma Goldman

Local collective Union Communiste Libertariare in the Saguenay
http://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/
http://www.causecommune.net

CANADIAN POLITICS-ONTARIO:

STARVING HEALTHCARE-FEEDING CORPORATIONS:

The following opinion piece was written by the President of the Ontario Public Service Employees' Union and published in the online news journal Public Values. I reprint it here if only because there seems to be a need of periodic reminders of how good Canada (and the rest of the civilized world ) has it in terms of health care when compared to the USA. Through the thunder of their (often mindless ) debate down there on the proposals to reform their healthcare system one can discern the almost comical ignorance that many (most ?) Americans have about how their system compares unfavourably with almost all developed and even a few underdeveloped countries. They spend more money and get fewer results. Not the least reason for this inefficiency is that a good proportion of the funds available are skimmed off as profit by the insurance companies, amongst others. Whatever the inefficiencies of other systems at least other countries don't have to apportion money to this class of parasites.

Up here our health care system is under attack and underfunded. Governments, such as those of Ontario, as mentioned in the following article, would much rather spend the money on corporate handouts. Not that our system is perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Molly has expressed her own preferences here at this blog before ie a system of community clinics and mutual cooperative insurance. The beginnings of such a system could easily be initiated even under our present system, with the mutual insurance covering things not presently covered by medicare. The single payer system would have to be retained until such time as non-government methods of social insurance were more fully developed. That process would have to be gradual to avoid unnecessary suffering. In the process of such a "withering away of the state" the first thing to go would obviously be grants to the corporations. The last thing to remain would be corporate taxes and taxes on the wealthy.

Until this process begins, should it ever begin, it can easily be demonstrated that the Rube Goldberg American system is demonstrably inferior to not just that of Canada but also to that of most of the developed world.

Here's the article.

HCHCHCHCHCHCHC

Canada spends one-half per capita on health than US does, yet we are healthier:
Government pleads poverty, yet proceeding with tax cuts to Ontario corporations.
by Warren (Smokey) Thomas
How sustainable is health care? Opponents of Medicare regularly question the public sector's ability to pay the bills as health care creeps up as a share of provincial budgets. New data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) suggests health care costs may be more sustainable than we think.

Affordability is best determined by looking at health costs as a percentage of our overall economy, not by the size of government. The CIHI data suggests that health care costs have escalated roughly in step with the economy, whereas the size of government has been getting dramatically smaller.

Health care accounted for 10 per cent of our economy in 1992 – the last period of recession. In 2009, health care is expected to be 11.9 per cent largely due to a shrinking gross domestic product (GDP), not rising costs. In 2008 it was 10.8 per cent, less than a percentage point above the 1992 levels. This hardly indicates a lack of sustainability.

"As a share of the overall health pie, hospitals have been shrinking. In 1975 hospitals accounted for 44.7 per cent of health expenditures. Today it’s 27.8 per cent."

There is no question we are living longer and better as a result of the investments we have made. From 1996 to 2006 our average life expectancy was extended by three years – the biggest leap in mortality rates since they have been kept.

Federal funding to reduce wait times is having a positive impact, particularly for hip and knee replacements as well as cataracts. This is something Canadians all said we wanted and were willing to pay for.

According to CIHI, money has also been invested in tailored drug therapies, diagnostic technology, training health care professionals and to increase class size in medical and nursing schools. These last investments are necessary if we hope to replace the soon to retire legion of baby boomers serving as professionals within our health system.

While spending as a percentage of our economy has nudged forward over 20 years, it has not been entirely in lock step. In the 1990s governments dramatically slashed funding to health care, leaving present governments with a major infrastructure deficit. It is far more costly to play catch-up than it is to keep the system on an even keel. Finance Minister Dwight Duncan admitted this when speaking to the Ontario Hospital Association Conference last fall.

Hospitals always appear the target of restraint, but are hardly to blame for rising health costs. As a share of the overall health pie, hospitals have been shrinking. In 1975 hospitals accounted for 44.7 per cent of health expenditures. Today it’s 27.8 per cent.

"Total public sector spending used to account for about half the economy. Today it is closer to one third."

In 2009 Canadians are expected to spend $5,452 per capita on health care – both public and private. That’s slightly less than France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. It's much less than the United States, which spends almost double per capita and yet leaves 45 million Americans uninsured and many more underinsured. On almost every objective measure, Canadians do better with their health than Americans, from infant mortality to our overall longevity.

In the past year there has been an attempt to divide the progressive community by portraying health care as an insatiable monster crowding out education, housing, transportation and even poverty reduction.

The McGuinty government continues to shrink the pie and is happy to see us all fighting over the scraps. Total public sector spending used to account for about half the economy. Today it is closer to one third.

While the government cries poor, it is stampeding ahead with a series of tax cuts, including a $5 billion reduction to Ontario corporations.

We need to defend all our social services, including health care. When we start pitting our sectors against each other, we all lose.
In solidarity,


Warren (Smokey) Thomas,

President
Links and sources Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) site

CANADIAN LABOUR-SASKATCHEWAN:

GOVERNMENT OFFER TO SASKATCHEWAN HEALTH CARE WORKERS INSULTING:

Out in Molly's old stomping ground, the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, the new ultra-conservative Saskatchewan Party (a temporary parking space for right wingers to avoid the aura of corruption of the old Conservatives-until they get caught enough themselves of course) continues its campaign of attacking ordinary people to increase the income and power of the rich. The latest targets are government employees in the health care sector. Here, from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is the latest news on the so-called "offer" of the government in negotiations that have been ongoing for over a year and a half. Molly has reported on these contract negotiations before last December.

SLSLSLSLSLSLSLSL

Health workers incensed by employers’ actions:
The Saskatchewan government and health employers “final offered” 25,000 health care providers and cancelled conciliation. Their actions have angered CUPE, which represents 12,600 health providers in five health regions.

Related: Hear radio host Roger Currie talk about the government's failure to bargain

“We are bitterly disappointed that the employers’ first move in conciliation is to present a final offer and cancel conciliation,” says CUPE Health Care Council President Gordon Campbell. “They’ve made a mockery of the conciliation process.”

The employers’ arrogance is tied to the government’s new essential services legislation, he adds. Under the legislation, three out of four health care providers are deemed essential and unable to strike.

The three health care providers unions – CUPE, SGEU and SEIU – have been negotiating for 17 months. Their contracts expired nearly two years ago.

“This so-called final offer is disgraceful,” says Mike Keith, CUPE’s chief negotiator, adding it contains all of the major concessions CUPE members rejected last June, when they voted 88% in support of job action. “These concessions are a license for health employers to understaff and overwork our members and mismanage our health care system.”

Keith says the union has “lost all confidence” that health employers have the mandate to negotiate a fair agreement.

“We are calling on the government to get serious about contract negotiations and stop trying to provoke a strike,” says Keith.

“We want to return to the bargaining table and negotiate a reasonable contract settlement. And we want the government to put a bargaining team in place to make make that happen,” he says.

CANADIAN LABOUR-SASKATCHEWAN:

HEALTH CARE WORKERS VERSUS THE SASKATCHEWAN GOVERNMENT:

Out Saskatchewan way a real test of wills is shaping up between the right wing Saskatchewan Party provincial government and over 11,000 workers represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Having voted over 88% in favour of strike action in late November the health care workers have continued to negotiate with the government, but many are becoming frustrated enough to begin walkouts at any time. They do this despite legislation that defines pretty well all of what they do as an "essential service" which means that they legally barred from striking. What follows is an article from the Regina Leader Post. To follow developments check in with the SEIU's western Canadian website.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Health-care workers willing to defy legislation, SEIU says:
By Janet French
Some unionized health-care workers are willing to walk off the job, defying essential services legislation and potentially incurring hefty fines, if they can't reach a deal with health regions, the president of Service Employees International Union-West says.

"People are prepared to take that next step," union president Barbara Cape said late last week.

Last Friday, the union, which represents more than 11,000 health-care workers such as licensed practical nurses, special care aides, laundry, maintenance and food service workers and more, announced it is taking four regional health authorities to court over their latest essential services plans.

Cape says lawyers have filed a notice of motion for a judicial review of essential services plans given to the union by Saskatoon, Cypress, Five Hills and Heartland health regions, and have also asked for a judicial review of the Public Service Essential Services Act itself.

The union is challenging the constitutionality of the act, and the plans.

Three health-care unions representing 25,000 workers -- SEIU-West, Saskatchewan General and Government Employees Union, and Canadian Union of Public Employees -- bargain together, and have been without a contract since March 2008.

The parties had been at the bargaining table, but those talks broke off in early December.

In a late-November strike vote, SEIU members voted 88 per cent in favour of job action.

When health regions delivered the union their essential services plans that day, Cape says the employers had declared at least 90 per cent of the workers "essential," which she says was more onerous than plans the health regions had handed over earlier this year.

"It takes away our right to strike, if not, severely limits our right to strike in support of collective bargaining," Cape said.

Susan Antosh, president and CEO of the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations, which bargains on behalf of the health regions and Saskatchewan Cancer Agency, says the regions did meet with the unions to try and agree on an essential services plan in advance, but the parties were not able to reach agreements.

They had also discussed, but failed to reach an agreement on providing replacement workers in the event of a strike.

Essential services legislation says as soon as there is a threat of job action, employers must present an essential services plan to the union, and notify workers, if no such agreement has been struck in advance.

Antosh said a strike vote means the unions could give 48-hour strike notice at any time.

Because hand-delivering letters to thousands of employees takes more than two days, Antosh said health regions opted to hand out their plans earlier.

Antosh also said the essential services plans handed over in February, then after each union's strike vote, were the same, if not less demanding than initial plans. Each plan declared about 75 per cent of the full-time workload to be essential, Antosh said. She admits that may work out to affect more than 90 per cent of the employees, but didn't have exact numbers.

During talks with members across the province before the strike vote, Cape said several workers claim they are willing to defy legislation and walk off the job to get a fair deal. Cape said the union is attempting to discourage workers from doing that.

Defying the essential services legislation could result in "significant" fines against the worker and the union -- $2,000 on the first day for a worker, and $400 on every subsequent day, Cape said.

"I don't know any health-care workers, let alone any person in the province, who can afford that kind of fine," she said.

Antosh also discourages any workers from breaking the law, but adds those are personal choices health regions cannot control.

When asked what assurances Antosh could provide that health-care services will be there for Saskatchewan people in the event of a strike, Antosh said the employers have done everything they can under current legislation.

"The employer is extremely interested in ensuring the services are provided, and people of Saskatchewan actually have access to the services that they need," she said. "That is not a decision or something that I have the ability to control."

During talks, the unions asked for wage increases of five per cent in 2008, five per cent in 2009 and five per cent in 2010.

SAHO countered with a proposal of a 9.4 per cent pay increase over four years, with additional incentives for hard-to-recruit professionals.

Cape calls the essential services plans a "stall tactic," that's preventing the parties from reaching an agreement, instead of a tool to ensure public safety during a strike.

Antosh maintains essential services agreements and collective bargaining are two independent processes, and that one shouldn't affect the other. (She probably said this with a straight face too-Molly )

However, there is hope bargaining will resume soon between the unions and SAHO. Both parties have agreed to work with government conciliator Doug Forsyth, and Antosh is hopeful more bargaining dates will be scheduled for January.

The essential services legislation was enacted in Saskatchewan in May 2008, and raised the ire of several labour groups and official Opposition both before and after it became law.

IMMIGRANTS/HEALTH CARE:

FAIR HEALTH CARE FOR IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES:

The following notice of a public meeting on the issue of health care for immigrants and refugees this Thursday comes from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP). catch it if you're down Toronto way.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

Crossing the Borders:

Creating a Just Health Care System for Immigrants and Refugees:‏
~Please forward widely~

Crossing the Borders:

Creating a Just Health Care System for Immigrants and Refugees

* Presented by "Health for All"

Thursday November 26th

6:30pm

55 Gould Street, Student Campus Centre, Room 115

Ryerson University

*An Evening Panel & Discussion Featuring:*

*Paul Caulford, MD, Scarborough Urban Health Outreach Centre (Clinic for the Uninsured) will discuss the reasons for and workings of the SUHOC, a health clinic that serves a large population of undocumented/uninsured persons.

* Bob Gardner, PhD, The Wellesley Institute will speak about the health care system and structural issues of equity

* Nell T.will speak about her first-hand experience of attempting to access care as a person with precarious status

*MacDonald Scott, LLCL will speak, as Nell's legal representation, from a legal perspective, outlining her unprecedented case in attempting to access Interim Federal Health, without status.

* Health is a fundamental human right. One that is being denied to hundreds of thousands of people living in Toronto. Increasingly conservative immigration policies are leading to high rates of rejection of refugee and permanent resident applications. Such policies leave many migrants with no access to health insurance. It is well established that immigrants tend to arrive healthier than the general Canadian population, but with the stresses associated with migration,migrant health deteriorates and the need to access health care inevitably arises.

The 200,000 undocumented migrants estimated to live in Toronto are forced to live in chronic fear of becoming ill, and to abandon their medical needs until they become too dire to ignore. Many die without ever having accessed care due to fear of being reported to immigration enforcement and the looming threat of deportation. Afraid of being targeted by immigration enforcement, people are forced to choose between deportation or a healthy life.

Every day in our cities, hundreds of thousands are denied justice at the doors of health care facilities throughout Toronto, and forced to pay impossible fees to access basic medical care. There is a growing consciousness around the GTA that we, as health administrators, front line staff, doctors, nurses, social workers, students, and health professionals, must be able to provide services to all people, irrespective of immigration status, and must work together to create a just health care system that recognizes health as a fundamental human right.

We are coming together to create meaningful and accessible services for all people. We invite you to an evening of discussion that will focus on the question: What would a just health care system in Canada look like?

This participatory evening will bring together people who are doing migrant research, front line health care professionals, as well as administrators and staff to discuss the current challenges and innovations in expanding services, and routes of entry into the health care system for persons without insurance and status. This forum will bring together a number of people who are already engaged with these issues - but also bring in students and those who are seeking to learn more about health issues for undocumented peoples living in Toronto, and across Canada.

*We want proposals, we want questions, we want to hear your experiences and know what you think the answers are. Please join us for this very important event.

* *Join our "Health for All" facebook group to stay updated:**http://www.facebook.com/group.**php?gid=180071088303&ref=ts*<http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=180071088303&ref=ts>

*Endorsed by*:

Health Is Political

Health Providers Against Poverty

Medical Reform Group

No-One Is Illegal, Toronto

Nursing Students of Ontario Public Health Interest Group,

U of T Medicine

Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario

Residents without Borders,

University of Toronto

Students for Medicare

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

AMERICAN LABOUR:

WORKING FOR WALMART-NOW THAT'S SCARY:

This one is mostly for our American readers who live in a country where health care insurance is, if it exists at all, is at the whim (or forced and grudging agreement) of employers. Employers such as Walmart whose 'generosity' is as bone thin as a Halloween skeleton. The following from the Wake Up Walmart group is asking you to protest the grinning toothed pumpkin behind the Walmart happy face mask. Walmart, of course, is hardly restricted to the USA, and I'm sure that many of us out here in the colonies would see fit to join this protest as well.

AlAlAlAlAlAlAlAlAl
What Is Behind Walmart's Mask?:‏
Apparently, every day is Halloween at Walmart headquarters. For months, Walmart has been dressed up as a health care champion: trumpeting support for the employer mandate and running ads about how "proud" it is of its health care record. In truth, Walmart's talk simply masks the reality of its health care failures.

Behind Walmart's PR mask is something uglier and scarier than anything you will see this Halloween. Behind the mask is the harsh reality of Walmart's notion of health care: unaffordable and inadequate coverage, nearly half of its employees without company health care, and staggering amounts of workers forced onto taxpayer-subsidized programs like Medicaid.

This Halloween, we want to do something a little different. We want to take off Walmart's mask and challenge the company to live up to its own rhetoric on health care. Join us. Take action, and help us "remove Walmart's mask" in time for Halloween.
Sign our open letter to Walmart CEO Mike Duke, calling for better coverage for employees and support for real heath care reform

Walmart claims it "won't be 100% satisfied until every American has quality affordable health coverage." Meanwhile, nearly 50% of its own employees are forced to look elsewhere for health insurance.

Walmart claims it offers quality plans. Yet, an average full-time Wal-Mart employee on the least expensive family coverage plan must spend over 20% of their yearly income before the health insurance provides any reimbursement.

When it comes to health care, Walmart is still part of the problem. Help make it part of the solution. Take action today: Tell Mike Duke to change Walmart's health care rhetoric into health care reality.
Sign our open letter and "take the mask off Walmart"
Thanks for all that you do,
The Team,

WakeUpWalMart.com

AlAlAlAlAlAlAlAlAl

THE LETTER

Please go to THIS LINK to read more and send the following letter of protest to WalMart

management.

AlAlAlAlAlAlAlAlAl

Dear Mr. Duke,
You have said Walmart cares about health care coverage. You have said Walmart claims to want reform. Last year, your company made $13 billion in profits. Yet, nearly 700,000 of your workers still go without company health care. That’s wrong.

Walmart claims that costs need to be controlled, but your own plans are unaffordable for many of your employees. These high costs force approximately 13% of your employees onto state health care programs like Medicaid and SCHIP in at least 8 states where data is available.

Mr. Duke, it’s your responsibility to lead Walmart toward better health care coverage. Do the right thing, make your actions match your words: your employees deserve the quality, affordable health care coverage you claim all Americans should have.

AMERICAN POLITICS:

TREAT IMMIGRANTS FAIRLY:

The following item from the Jobs With Justice Coalition is for our American readers as it is an appeal to the US Congress that those of us out here in the colonies cannot participate in. If the quality of a society can be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable members then American society has had a failing grade for some time now, and there are, unfortunately, those who want to perpetuate this state of affairs. There are, however, other Americans who see justice and compassion as part of their national heritage, and the following appeal is from one such group.

%^%^%^%^%^%^%^
Tell Congress: Treat Immigrants Fairly in Health Reform:‏
First our political leaders said health care reform would cover everyone. Now we hear that Congress is considering barring legal immigrants from health reforms that would enable low and moderate income families to secure affordable coverage.

As the House of Representatives moves to finalize its health reform legislation this week, immigrants continue to be left out. As it stands now, most recent legal immigrants are forced to wait 5 years to use Medicaid, Medicare, and CHIP, even though they pay the same taxes as citizens to support these programs.

Your voice is needed to urge the House of Representatives to act right now to give immigrants a fair opportunity for affordable health insurance. You can take action on this alert via the web at:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/immigranthealth/wukd7sd927eiw5ij?

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/immigranthealth/forward/wukd7sd927eiw5ij?

We encourage you to take action by November 30, 2009

Tell Congress: Treat Immigrants Fairly in Health Reform

INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA THE WEB:

If you have access to a web browser, you can take action on this alert by going to the following URL:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/immigranthealth/wukd7sd927eiw5ij?

Your letter will be addressed and sent to:Your Congressperson

----THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT IN YOUR NAME----

Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],

Legal immigrants and citizens should be treated equally under health reform. End the five year waiting period for legal immigrants in Medicaid, Medicare, and CHIP.

----END OF LETTER TO BE SENT----

CANADIAN POLITICS:

HARPER DODGES THE BULLET ONCE MORE:

You actually have to admire Steven Harper, at least for his skill as a politician. "Sneaky Stevie" sits on top of what is an essentially unstable alliance, of social conservatives and hard line free market ideologues. Whatever his personal religious views they are certainly secondary in Stevie's world to the need for providing his corporate friends with the ability to make money (and not incidentally adding to his "sum of friends" when he finally leaves politics). Stevie's well-famed intolerance of dissent in his own party is a necessity for such a leader. Loosen the screws and, before you can say 'Timothy McVeigh' every single nut in the Conservative coalition will be publicly voicing opinions that would put the Conservative Party at the level of public approval of say the 'Marxist Leninist Party'. No, 're-education camps for homosexuals' is a non-starter in Canada.

But Sneaky Stevie's political sense extends far beyond knowing that the "terrorists for Jesus Brigade" is not the way to power. Like any good neo-conservative he throws the sexually obsessed the occasional bone, whatever his personal contempt for them, just to keep their preachers telling the congregations to come out and vote for the Conservatives. What is really masterful on his part is knowing when to backpedal on his core neo-conservative ideology. He has done this for some time now in relation to many issues, and the issue of medicare (which pretty well defines the separation of the USA from the civilized world) is perhaps the core issue where neo-con ideology conflicts with simple common sense.

Not that Molly is entirely satisfied with the Canadian medical system as it is. As a libertarian socialist I would much prefer that medical care be delivered through a network of cooperative institutions rather than through a statist single payer system that funds both overly bureaucratized "public" institutions and private practice. being as that is still far in the future, I have no doubt that our system delivers better medical care, at a considerably lower cost, than the American system where public bureaucracies are replaced with private ones and where millions of people have no coverage whatsoever. In terms of "bang for the buck" the American system actually delivers far poorer public health results than not just Canada, or almost every industrialized country. It is even substandard as compared to some "Third World" countries.

All that is obvious to those who bother to read and who are not consumed by ideology, as much of the American right is. The numbers are there. Look them up. Down USA way the frustrated right wing is focusing as the present Democratic health care proposals which are actually a far step below what the civilized countries have accepted as a standard of care. In this "holy cause" the right wing propagandists have stooped to every possible lie. The article below mentions one of them, the mendacious Shona Holmes ads. what is important about the following article is that, whatever Sneaky Stevie's public face of the moment, he has a long term commitment to turn medical care over to the tender mercies of his dream world of a free market.

Here's the article from the Harper Index, a website devoted to tracking the machinations of our beloved comrade Dear Leader.

CPCPCPCPCPCPCP

Health care defence intentionally vague:
Harper attempts to avoid debate over Canadian system because he despises it.
by Eric Mang
WASHINGTON, DC, August 13, 2009: While American debate rages over Canadian-style health care, Canada's prime minister is ducking the debate in order not to reveal his own feelings about a system most voters support wholeheartedly.

On August 10, Stephen Harper was interviewed by ABC News correspondent, Jake Tapper on issues raised at the recent summit between the leaders of Canada, the USA and Mexico, including H1N1, Mexican drug cartels, the coup in Honduras, and Afghanistan.

Given the raging health care reform debate south of the border, the Prime Minister's answers to Mr. Tapper's health care questions were revealing, as much for what they did not say as what they did.

Since the Conservatives were re-elected in 2008, health care seldom receives much attention as a federal issue compared with other portfolios or previous governments. Although social services are not a strong suit for the Conservatives, the government has tried to dodge accusations that they wish greater private involvement in Canada's health care system. As the record shows, these accusations are not unfounded.

In a response to the 2002 Throne Speech, Mr. Harper said: "A government monopoly is not the only way to deliver health care to Canadians. ... It [the federal government] must remove any barriers, any chill to increase private capital investment plans that the provinces have for our health-care system."

In the National Post in 2000, Mr. Harper said: "[former Reform MP and current Liberal] Dr. Keith Martin is a highly intelligent and capable member of Parliament. He is also advancing perhaps the most important issue of the next generation the need for private health care competition."

Harper's answers to health care questions were revealing, as much for what they did not say as what they did.

In the Conservative's 2006 election platform, they advocated a "mix of public and private health care delivery…"

However, the Conservatives, who are attempting to learn from their political missteps, are aware that a majority of Canadians support a universal, single-payer health care system. A recent Harris/Decima poll found that 70% of respondents thought our system to be working well and that 82% prefer our system to the American one. Notably, more than half of respondents thought more services should be covered in the public system (e.g. dentists) while only 12% thought more of the system should be private. Further, a Nanos Research poll found that 86% of respondents supported or strongly supported "public solutions to make our public health care stronger".

Wanting to slake the public's thirst for improvements in health care, in 2006 the Conservatives issued five commitments they would act on if elected to government; one of those pledges was a Patient Wait Times Guarantee: "Work with the provinces to develop a Patient Wait Times Guarantee to ensure that all Canadians receive essential medical treatment within clinically acceptable waiting times…"

When it appeared that the Conservatives could not meet their wait times commitment, it was quietly replaced by an ambiguous statement of a "strong, united Canada".

The Conservatives are now fully distanced from their 2006 promise of wait times guarantees. When asked by Mr. Tanner whether our wait times are too long, Mr. Harper replied, omitting any reference of a federal partnership with provinces: "Yes, but the responsibility for the health care waits, in our country, are the responsibilities of provincial governments."

The Canadian health care system has been used as a political football by many legislators and right-wing commentators in the United States. Unfortunately, many of their contentions are false, misleading and/or heavily embellished.

In a response to exaggerated claims made by Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, Conservative Senator Hugh Segal was quick with a rebuttal: "The notion that we have some bureaucrat standing next to every doctor between the patient and that doctor is a complete creation, there is no truth to that at all…What you have[in Canada] is a longer life span, better outcomes and about one-third less costs [compared to the US]. That's what you have."

When Mr. Harper was given an opportunity by Mr. Tapper to correct misconceptions about Canada's health care system, Mr. Harper did not attempt to address the more specious falsehoods. Rather, he downplayed the federal government's role in health care, despite our system being a single national plan through the Canada Health Act, and responded: "In Canada, health care is principally the responsibility of our provincial government. The federal government provides some transfers. We do some of the drug regulation, a number of other activities. But it is principally a system run by our provincial government [sic]. So first of all, I don't feel qualified to intervene in the debate."

While it may not have been politically prudent for Mr. Harper to allow himself to be dragged into the Shona Holmes debacle (Holmes' claims have been largely debunked) he could have taken a cue from his colleague, Conservative Senator Hugh Segal, and been tactful and truthful about Canada's health care system.

Mr. Harper's comments on health care spending in Canada were also misleading. Defending his government's choices in allocating tax revenue, Mr. Harper oversimplified public sector budgeting meeting public demand: "At the same time, all of this costs money. If you are prepared to spend an unlimited amount of money, you can do an almost unlimited number of things in people's health care. But you don't have an unlimited amount of money no matter what your system is. And these are challenges that every system has to address."

While Mr. Harper is correct there is a finite source of tax dollars and revenue-raising instruments available his government's decision to cut the GST reduced government revenue by more than $12 billion. Further, tax credits and more tax cuts have deprived the federal treasury of a few more billion dollars.

There are very few in health care or in any sector who believe governments have unlimited funds or have only one spending priority. But most would agree that governments exercise decisions and make choices. When the decision is made to reduce the amount of revenue a government collects, the choices to fund government programs becomes increasingly limited.

Health care consistently rates as one of the top policy issues on the minds of Canadians and polls indicate that a majority support the public system. Although the Conservatives are reticent to involve themselves in health care issues, there were a number of points in his interview with Mr. Tapper where Mr. Harper could have set the record straight in front of an American audience and acknowledged how much Canadians cherish their health care system.

Eric Mang lives in Toronto and was a former political aide in the Harris government in Ontario and in the Campbell government in British Columbia. See more of his writings at www.ericmang.com.
Posted: August 13, 2009
Harper Index (HarperIndex.ca) is a project of the Golden Lake Institute and the online publication StraightGoods.ca

AMERICAN LABOUR:

JUST DON'T GET SICK WHILE WORKING FOR STARBUCKS:

It can often be hard for those of us who live in the civilized world (ie industrially developed countries and many who are not so developed) to comprehend the situation surrounding health care in the USA. Despite spending more per capita on health services than any other country in the world the outcomes,as measured by such things as life span, infant mortality rates, maternal mortality,etc.,etc.,etc. are far behind many other countries in the world. One of the problems in the USA is that health care is covered by a patchwork of insurance plans with a minimal participation on the part of government in a few aspects. The result has been extreme cost overruns for numerous reasons. One reason is that the patchwork of insurance companies has led to the growth of numerous bureaucracies, all of whom have to take their cut, that provide living proof that "private" managers are at least as bloodthirsty as public ones. The other is that the proportion of the population who are covered under public plans are covered by a number of different agencies which also increases the costs of bureaucracy. Finally, and perhaps this is inherent in American culture, those who do have the means-and the legal clout to make insurance companies compliant- demand stupendously aggressive medical interventions of dubious social, or even individual, value. Everybody goes along with this. Insurance companies are reluctant to challenge those who have easy access to lawyers. The medical industry will rapidly rush to fulfill whatever demand, with great financial rewards, that such people generate.

Meanwhile a large proportion of the American population is not covered at all by health plans. Those who are are subjected to continued uncertainty as most are covered by employer provided plans that depend upon a)the financial stability of the employer and b)the willingness of the employer to play by the terms of the social contract and not attempt to cut the coverage back at any convenient opportunity. The following from the website of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) tells of one such instance. This is the case of the Starbucks corporation who are attempting to cut the health benefits, such as they are, of their employees. They are opposed by the IWW affiliated Starbucks Union, recently in the news here in Canada for having organized and gained bargaining rights at a Starbucks outlet in Québec City. Here's the story from the point of view of the Starbucks Union.

ALALALALALALAL
IWW Starbucks Union Condemns Starbucks Doubling Health Insurance Costs:
For Immediate Release:

IWW Starbucks Workers Union

Media Contacts:

Aaron Kocher - 612-220-6454

Liberte Locke - 917-693-7742

July 28, 2009

IWW Starbucks Union Condemns Starbucks Doubling Health Insurance Costs Health Coverage Cuts Come Amidst Soaring Profits

Starbucks, amid massive profits, announced on Monday that it will slash at employee health care benefits. The company announced that premiums for its most economical employee health care package will nearly double, along with across the board increases in out-of-pocket expenses. This slap in the face to workers comes just one week after the announcement of $256 million in profits for the quarter, far exceeding internal and Wall Street expectations.

These cuts are an insult to Starbucks workers, and the thousands of workers who have been laid off in the last year. The increased costs of health benefits will be a barrier to many workers thinking of enrolling, forcing them to make the hard decision between health care coverage and feeding their families.

We expect more from Starbucks as a leading Fortune 500 company that builds its brand image on its treatment of its "partners", what it calls employees. Starbucks has a responsibility to provide affordable, quality healthcare to its workers, who are responsible for its enormous profits. Instead, Starbucks continues to use health care benefits as a marketing tool, while actually covering a lower percentage of its workforce than the notoriously unethical Wal-Mart.

Starbucks has repeatedly shown that it cannot be trusted to compensate us fairly. We believe as workers we must organize together to hold Starbucks accountable, and give us the respect and dignity we deserve.

About the IWW Starbucks Workers Union:

The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is an organization of over 300 current and former employees at the world's largest coffee chain united for secure work hours, a living wage, and respect on the job. The union has members throughout the United States and Canada, fighting for positive change at the company and defending baristas treated unfairly by management.

CANADIAN POLITICS:

TWO TORONTO EVENTS:

Here, courtesy of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) are two events coming up down Toronto way tomorrow and Saturday.

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Friday: Health Care For All, Saturday: Housing For All:‏
1. Health For All:

Health Care Provision and Direct Action Politics Panel

Friday May 22, 20097-9 p.m.

Ryerson University

Thomas Lounge

63 Gould Street

2. Decent, affordable, accessible housing for all

Stop the sell-off of public housing.

May 2311:30 am

13 Trefann Street(north of Queen, just east of Parliament)

Free Meal

*****************

Health For All:

Health Care Provision and Direct Action Politics Panel

Friday May 22, 20097-9 p.m.

Ryerson University

Thomas Lounge

63 Gould Street

Free!

Join Students for Medicare and No One is Illegal as we bring together health professionals, organizing alongside their communities in the fight for health for all!

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Health care professionals are on the front lines of care every day, and are direct witnesses to the inadequate resources and access to health care facing many marginalized populations in our own communities. It is during their professional lives that health care providers realize that just showing up to the clinic will not be enough to make everyone well.

This evening will provide opportunities to discuss the difference between patient advocacy and patient solidarity. We will learn from example how community members and health care professionals have used creativity to build safer, healthier communities and a healthy analysis of what it is that really makes us sick, and what it will take to realize health for all.

Panelists include:

Bethany Schroeder,

Executive Director of the Ithaca Health Alliance,Ithaca, NY (www.ithacahealthalliance.org )Bethany Schroeder will discuss the Ithaca Health Alliance which has been working for over ten years to facilitate creative health solutions for the uninsured. Their work includes providing grants for medical procedures, and the Ithaca Free Clinic, which provides 100% free conventional and holistic healthcare services to the un- and under-insured.

Roland Wong, M.D., Toronto

Dr. Wong is a community physician who works primarily with patients living in poverty. He has recently been challenged by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario regarding his professional "misconduct"because he continues to fill out Special Diet Forms for patients desperately in need. Dr. Wong has will speak on the direct link between poverty and health, and how he has successfully worked with OCAP to meet his patient's needs.

Samir Shaheen Hussain, M.D,

Solidarity Across Borders Montreal

Over the years, Samir has been involved with Indigenous solidarity, migrant justice and anti-police brutality organising, with groups like the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement (IPSM), Solidarity Across Borders (SAB) and No One Is Illegal-Montreal (NOII). He will provide a critical overview of the barriers imposed on migrant folks in accessing healthcare, and will discuss the significant potential of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policies based on his experiences with migrant children during his pediatric residency. Samir will also speak about the politicization of both healthcare workers and community members as being necessary for Health for All

Cathy Crowe, R.N.,

Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, Toronto

Cathy Crowe has been a Street Nurse in downtown Toronto for over 20years. She has worked as a nurse and activist helping to found numerous coalitions that have fought for social justice including: Nurses for Social Responsibility, Toronto Coalition Against Homelessness, TB Action Group, and the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee which in 1998 declared homelessness a national disaster.

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Decent, affordable, accessible housing for all

Stop the sell-off of public housing.

May 2311:30 am

13 Trefann Street(north of Queen, just east of Parliament)

Free Meal

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, TCHC (Toronto Community Housing Corporation) tenants, people on the TCHC waiting list and supporters will meet outside of one of the houses slated to be sold by TCHC to demand it and all TCHC units remain public housing. TCHC is quietly proposing to sell-off 326 apartment units and 45 single family homes that are located in sought-after neighbourhoods, primarily downtown and in the Beaches.

Many large families are living in two bedroom apartments, waiting for larger units, while TCHC is emptying select units in an attempt to to sell-off its prime real estate. These sales (and the City's displacement of poor people through “redevelopment”) means that many TCHC residents are being displaced from their schools, friends and communities - neighbourhoods that many residents have lived in for years.

TCHC says that the units up for sale are in such a state of disrepair that they cannot be fixed. We have seen many of the units and it is a boldfaced lie! Further, the units that are in really bad repair were purposely not kept up by TCHC so that they could sell the units off down the road and use their dilapidation as an excuse.

Public housing can be updated and revitalized without selling the land, forcing people from their homes and displacing entire communities.

We Demand:

Build housing, don't sell it!

Repair, don’t redevelop!

Don’t Ask, Don’tTell!

Stop the “Redevelopment” of Our Neighbourhoods

Currently, there are six large housing projects undergoing or slated for redevelopment This redevelopment is being promoted as an improvement to TCHC communities. Specifically, the city argues that the so called “mixed communities” will improve the lives of poor people.

The truth however is,that this is an excuse to take away poor people's homes that have high property values. The City isn't demanding that Rosedale be turned into a 'mixed neighbourhood' – just the places where poor people live. Further, over time, these rebuilt communities will become gentrified; we can expect TCHC to rent more of the units at market value, pushing poor people out.

Ensure that Enough Social, Supportive and Accessible Housing is Built to Eliminate the Waiting List

Over 70,000 households are waiting to get into social housing. It takes about 5 years to get a tiny bachelor unit in Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) and about 10 years to get anything else. Thousands of people are working multiple jobs, going hungry, and living in rotten conditions while they wait. Thousands of homeless people pack into shelters or sleep on the streets every night because no supportive housing is available. Accessible housing for disabled people is very hard to find and is often extremely expensive. As the economic crisis continues, this situation will get even worse. We need more housing and we need it now!

Repair TCHC Units

Nearly 60,000 units of public housing in Toronto are being allowed to deteriorate. TCHC admits that $300 million worth of repairs is needed to bring their buildings up to a minimum legal standard. People are forced to live with gaping holes, leaking ceilings, exposed pipes, peeling paint, electrical sockets that spark and infestations of rats, mice and bedbugs.

This is unacceptable, this is illegal and it has to stop!

Don't Ask Don't Tell

People without immigration status are especially marginalized in our city. People without status are forced into precarious housing, unable to access safe, decent paying work and shut out from public services. There are over 500,000 people living without status across Canada, many of whom live in Toronto. A person without status is not eligible to apply for Toronto Community Housing. Further, if a family, living in housing, has even one family member without status that entire family will be evicted.

We demand the city implement a Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. This policy would prevent all TCHC workers from asking people what their immigration status is, from refusing housing to people without status and from sharing that information with immigration authorities.

**

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

10 Britain St.

Toronto, ON

M5A 1R6

416-925-6939

ocap@tao.ca

www.ocap.ca

**

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-POLAND:

HEALTH CARE-NEITHER PRIVATE NOR STATE:

This one is close to Molly's heart, coming as I do from Saskatchewan where a non-state method of cooperative health care ie the community clinics was overwhelemed by statist single payer options due to an over-reliance on statist illusions amongst the people. The comrades in Poland have posed the options starkly and plainly. Socialism can never be statist or it is not socialism. It is rather the rule of a managerial class. At the same time real socialism has to prove itself as better than that of the managers. To do this it has to show that it can perform all the functions that the managers have abrogated to themselves, Here's the Polish case.

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Poland, Protest in Krakow - There is an alternative to privatization of health care!:

This was the slogan of a picket held yesterday in Krakow in front of the offices of the Civic Platform party. Civic Platform is the party of the government responsible for pushing through health-care reform and many other anti-labour, neoliberal reforms. The anarchists protested against turning the health care system into a profit-making machine They proposed that hospitals be turned into cooperatives.

---- People from Workers' Initiative from Krakow and Bielsko-Biala took part as well as members of Union of Syndicalists (ZSP) from Silesia and the Anarchist Federation from Krakow and Silesia. Some workers from a hospital in Bielsko Biala also came to the picket.