Memoirs on medicare from new NYC book

Next Year Country Books

Below is a chapter from NYC's latest book, No Expectations: A Memoir by James N. McCrorie.

NO EXPECTATIONS is a brief memoir of a Montreal working class kid, the son of Scottish immigrants, who lowered his sights, abandoning a lively ambition to either go to sea or become a railroader, and settling for the life of an academic. The choice did not keep him out of some of the historical struggles of his time, including the fight for medicare in Saskatchewan in 1962, the wild cat strike of 1964, when CN railroaders shut down the railroad, paralyzing the nation, and university reform, which dominated campus life throughout the 1970s.

You can purchase  this book HERE.

Chapter 10 MEDICARE

.It would not be an exaggeration to say that I was thrilled by my research work. The whimsical thought of railroading was banished from my mind. I was travelling all over the province, meeting and interviewing all manner of farm men and women, becoming acquainted with the intriguing history of the province, marveling at how so many men and women, many non-English speaking when they arrived, dared to settle this formidable semi arid desert and create upon the land one of the most enlightened and progressive human communities in Canada.

There was another consideration. I was falling in love with this semi arid desert. True. I missed Montreal, the St. Lawrence River valley and the Canadian Shield. (I was yet to discover that the shield was part of the far north of the province; a region I was yet to visit.) But the variety and complexity of the plains and the parkland began to attract me. Experience and acquaintanceship were undermining my initial displeasure with my new geographical surroundings.

Medicare booklet promotional video

Next Year Country Books

 

New NYC Booklet on Medicare

NYC

Medicare's Birth in Saskatchewan: 50th Anniversary of a People's Victory

The two articles re-published in this pamphlet were written to address the 50th anniversary of North America's first public healthcare system for all citizens initiated in Saskatchewan on July 1, 1962.

We were researching the prolific resources and books available on the subject in preparation for a forthcoming book on the fight for medicare in Saskatchewan and wanted to raise the profile of the anniversary as the actual anniversary approached.

This pamphlet is intended as a short and quick resource for labour and health care activists as we celebrate 50 years of medicare.

- Lorne Brown, Doug Taylor

Purchase HERE.

Coming soon!

Next Year Country Books

Introduction

The two articles re-published in this pamphlet were written to address the 50^th anniversary of North America’s first public healthcare system for all citizens initiated in Saskatchewan on July 1, 1962.

We were researching the prolific resources and books available on the subject in preparation for a forthcoming book on the fight for medicare in Saskatchewan and wanted to raise the profile of the anniversary as the actual anniversary approached.

This pamphlet is intended as a short and quick resource for labour and health care activists as we celebrate 50 years of medicare.

"Medicare's 50th Anniversary" complete blog book

NYC
October 3, 2012

The second and final volume of this blog in book form can now be read below. You can also download the book or embed it. Most links should work.

Open publication - Free publishing - More canada

Below is the first volume.

Open publication - Free publishing - More ccf

Medicare's 50th Anniversary Signing Off

NYC
September 4, 2012

The 50th anniversary of medicare's fiery birth here in Saskatchewan has now come and gone.

The Saskatchewan labour movement, the Saskatchewan Health Coalition, community clinics, the Saskatchewan CCPA, the provincial NDP and others ensured that is was well-marked with lessons learned from the historic battle in 1962.

I hope this site has provided an useful resource for those advocating for defending and improving Canada's public health care system.

The site will be left up for as long as Google lets blogs remain dormant.

Please visit the sites listed on the right of this blog for updates for the continuing fight to ensure health care for all, in Canada and elsewhere.

Please also visit the articles published in Briarpatch magazine and Canadian Dimension written by Dr. Lorne Brown and myself relating to the 50th anniversary.

Same Fight, New Foes

The Birth of Medicare: From Saskatchewan’s breakthrough to Canada‑wide coverage

Thank you all for your comments and spreading the word.

Doug Taylor

Next Year Counrty

272 billion reasons to fear privatization

Defending Public Healthcare
Notes from Leftwords for the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions

August 22, 2012

Below is a list of the 11 US health corporations on the Fortune 500 list. They had a combined revenue of approximately $272 billion in 2010. They make about $15 billion in profits.

Trying to reform America's largely for-profit health care system is bound to come up against these interests. With such large revenue streams they have incredible power and resources to divert health care reform to match their own interests. They have (literally) billions of reasons to do so.

Their influence has not led to good results. The privatized American system is far and away the most expensive health care system in the world. Despite this, tens of millions of Americans have no health care insurance and tens of millions more have inadequate health care insurance.

If Canada let's more and more corporations into our health care system, we will more and more face the same corporate interests able and willing to push health care in the same direction that corporate health care pushes the American system.

			Revenues		Profits
Rank	Company	Fortune 500 rank	$ millions	% change from 2010	$ millions	% change from 2010
1	UnitedHealth Group	22	101,862.0	8.2	5,142.0	11.0
2	WellPoint	45	60,710.7	3.2	2,646.7	-8.3
3	Humana	79	36,832.0	8.8	1,419.0	29.1
4	Aetna	89	33,779.8	-1.4	1,985.7	12.4
5	Cigna	130	21,998.0	3.5	1,327.0	-1.3
6	Coventry Health Care	219	12,186.7	5.2	543.1	23.8
7	Health Net	221	11,901.0	-12.6	72.1	-64.7
8	Amerigroup	385	6,318.4	8.8	195.6	-28.4
9	WellCare Health Plans	401	6,106.9	12.3	264.2	N.A.
10	Centene	453	5,340.6	19.5	111.2	17.3
11	Molina Healthcare	500	4,769.9	16.7	20.8	-62.1

Issue date: May 21, 2012

Opinion: Time to fight for universal Pharmacare

A universal program would save Canadians up to $10 billion a year, some estimate

By Steve Morgan

The Vancouver Sun

August 20, 2012

When Prime Minister Stephen Harper, along with the health and immigration ministers, tried to justify cutting refugee health coverage in Canada they argued it was about fairness. Providing prescription drug coverage to refugees was unfair, they claimed, because other Canadians do not have such coverage. They were at least partly right.

As a country, we provide universal access to medically necessary hospital care, diagnostic tests and physician services based solely on need. It’s a point of national pride. But Canadian “medicare” — as it is affectionately known — ends as soon as a patient is given a prescription to fill.

Provincial drug plans cover only limited populations, such as seniors or social assistance recipients, or limited costs (such as costs exceeding “catastrophic” deductibles). Private drug insurance is a perk not easily obtained by Canadians who are retired, self-employed or employees of small companies.

The patchwork of drug coverage in Canada has consequences that cost us all.

As medicare turns 50, let’s see the full vision implemented

Association of Ontario Health Centres

For AOHC, “medicare” is not just the inner workings of our health system. For us, medicare is an inspiring aspiration enshrined in Canada’s Health Act:

… to protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well-being of residents of Canada and to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial barriers and other barriers.

Financial barriers were addressed in medicare’s first stage – a publicly funded health insurance system designed to cover costs for doctors and hospitals. The second stage that Tommy Douglas and medicare’s other founders envisioned was intended to address the other barriers standing in the way of improved health and well-being – the root causes of poor health and out-of-date delivery of care.

Potential for billions of dollars in increased health cost if Canada-EU trade deal goes through

With Europe in a financial crisis the question remains how far is Canada willing to go to achieve a deal?

NUPGE News

16 Aug. 2012

While negotiators for the proposed Canada-European Union trade deal say that negotiations are in the final stages, serious concerns continue to be raised about some of the provisions expected to be in the agreement. It is reported that negotiators have reached agreement on 3/4s of the text but that there are some serious issues remaining to be addressed.

In particular, Canadian officials say there is a large gap in the negotiations over such issues as investment rules, financial services, and taxation. With Europe in a financial crisis the question remains how far is Canada willing to go to achieve a deal?

A number of commentators suggest the intellectual property chapter of the deal as being particularly difficult.

According to Michael Geist, the University of Ottawa's Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law, the revelation that "provisions from the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement may sneak their way into CETA generated widespread headlines throughout Europe last month with politicians and activists expressing exasperation at the clumsy attempt to secretly revive an agreement that was roundly rejected by the European Parliament."

"The Canadian opposition to the chapter will come from European demands for patent reforms that could result in billions in additional health care costs due to higher pharmaceutical prices. The pharmaceutical demands are one of Europe's top priorities, but Canada has thus far refused to counter the EU proposals, creating a stalemate that has dragged on for years."

Canada's lead negotiator, Steve Verheul, says that the pharmaceutical industries demands won't be on the table during negotiations in September and October.

While big pharma insists that these reforms are needed to increase research and development investment in Canada, past experience suggests otherwise.

In the 1980s, the industry lobbied for patent reforms while promising to increase spending on research and development in Canada to 10 per cent of total sales by 1996. In reality, investment in drug research and development has declined and is as its lowest level since the 1987 reforms.

According to Geist, "given 25 years of mostly failed targets, the rational approach is to put a freeze on any further reforms at least until the industry lives up to its commitments. But with the agreement shrouded in secrecy - the government has steadfastly rejected calls to release the draft text - it appears that the major health care decision will be made behind closed doors with no public discussion, debate, or access to the official text."

Physicians take healthier approach

BY GREG FINGAS

SPECIAL TO THE LEADER POST

AUGUST 16, 2012 

Physicians must become stronger advocates for health equity, says incoming CMA President Dr. Anna Reid, an emergency room physician in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

Just a few short years ago, the Canadian Medical Association's leadership launched a series of direct challenges to Canada's universal public health-care system. Two CMA presidents known for their involvement in private service delivery used the national profile associated with the organization to pitch their business model. And CMA members came within an eyelash of voting for health care to be at least in part patient-funded.

But the effort of one faction within the CMA to shift our health-care system toward a profit-based model didn't do much to sway public opinion or reshape the delivery of health care. (Yes, we've continued to see privatization by stealth - but not at any greater pace than was already under way.) Instead, it was met by the founding of Canadian Doctors for Medicare, who made it abundantly clear that the CMA couldn't claim a professional consensus to dismantle our prized national health-care system.

Now, the CMA looks to have changed direction entirely. And there's reason for optimism that Canada's medical profession is headed down a much more viable path.

To address health inequalities, look beyond the role of individual responsibility

By Iglika Ivanova 
Progressive Economics Forum
August 14th, 2012

A new report by the Canadian Medical Association provides a timely reminder that money buys better health, even in a country with a universal public healthcare system. A poll commissioned by the CMA found a large and increasing gap between the health status of  Canadians in lower income groups (household income less than $30,000) and their wealthier counterparts (household income over $60,000).

The fact that income affects health is hardly a surprise. A large body of research has shown that both globally and in Canada, income (and socioeconomic status more broadly) is closely related to virtually all health outcomes that one can think of, from life expectancy to mental health. Health experts have coined the term “social determinants of health” to draw attention to the factors outside the healthcare system that affect health, and income is identified as one of the key social determinants of health.

50th Anniversary of Medicare Crisis - Documentary

CBC
The Current
Monday, July 23, 2012

Listen

On the 50th anniversary of the introduction of medicare, a documentary look at the battle that nearly kept it from happening. We hear from two families from different sides of the dispute look back on the Medicare fight in Saskatchewan, they feel it's shaped the way healthcare is delivered today.

50th Anniversary of Medicare Crisis - Documentary

In the summer of 1962, the Saskatchewan Doctor's Strike brought a bitter fight over medicare to a head. The labour dispute was triggered on July 1st, when Canada's first universal health care plan, the Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Act, took effect. Doctors walked off the job and stayed off for more than three weeks.

Patients panicked, worried about who would care for them in an emergency. And the provincial government stood its ground, determined to make the new law stick. For three weeks that stand-off produced protests, fear ... even threats of violence. It wasn't settled until a deal called the Saskatoon Agreement was signed 50 years ago today.

Today, we're looking back on that dispute to find out how it has shaped the health care we know today. The CBC's Sean Prpick tells the story through the eyes of two families who were on opposite sides of the issue. Sean's documentary is called Days of Decision.

Dr. Noel Doig has just published a new memoir of Sasakatchewan's medicare crisis. It's called Setting The Record Straight.

The next 50 years: What does the future hold for Medicare in Saskatchewan?

By Christeen Jesse
L-P Specialty Products

July 23, 2012

The induction of Medicare into Saskatchewan law 50 years ago has done more than just provide affordable health care - it has also placed importance on the values of equality and democracy.

"We have seen a real establishment of an ethic and understanding that people should be treated if they're sick - regardless of how much money they make and of where they are in society," said Ryan Meili, a family physician in Saskatoon and the head of the Division of Social Accountability at the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. "I think that's a really positive thing to have been developed here and it effects the way we see lots of areas of social investment."

Meili, who wrote the recently-published book A Healthy Society: How a Focus on Health Can Revive Canadian Democracy, recognizes the province's past accolades in health care, but says as society evolves, Medicare needs to change with it.

The Birth of Medicare: From Saskatchewan’s breakthrough to Canada‑wide coverage

By Lorne Brown and Doug Taylor

Canadian Dimension

July 3rd 2012

The Saskatchewan Doctor’s Strike. Photo courtesy Saskatchewan Council for Archives and Archivists. 

Medicare was born in Saskatchewan on July 1, 1962. It would be the first government-controlled, universal, comprehensive single-payer medical insurance plan in North America. It was a difficult birth. The North American medical establishment and the entire insurance industry were determined to stop Medicare in its tracks. They feared it would become popular and spread, and they were right. Within 10 years all of Canada was covered by a medical insurance system based on the Saskatchewan plan, and no serious politician would openly oppose it.

The same interests that tried to prevent Medicare and are continually trying to destroy it in Canada have mostly succeeded in stopping similar progress in the United States. After more than half a century of struggle, the American Medical Association (AMA) and the private insurance industry still control the US medical system despite minor steps forward like Medicaid for the very poor and Medicare for the elderly. The latest plan passed by Congress and endorsed by the private insurance industry amounts to public subsidies for the insurance industry.

Commentators have often wondered why the campaign for state medicine succeeded in Canada and failed in the United States. The battle for Medicare occurred in the 1960s when our political culture was moving to the left. Medicare’s first breakthrough.

Stronger measures needed to crack down on for-profit clinics, say doctors

Canadian Doctors for Medicare

July 19, 2012

BC’s Medical Services Commission called for an end to extra billing at afor-profit surgical clinic infamous for its illegal billing practices yesterday, in a movedoctors say has been a long time coming.

“We’re thrilled that the illegal billing practiced by the Cambie Clinic is finally being calledto account by the Medical Services Commission,” said Dr. Danielle Martin, chair ofCanadian Doctors for Medicare. “But there must be real consequences to chargingCanadians for their publicly-insured services.”

After a lengthy audit, the Medical Services Commission concluded that CambieSurgeries Corporation and the Specialist Referral Clinic (Vancouver) Inc. owned by Dr.Brian Day charged illegally in more than 200 cases, charging the BC Ministry of Healthnearly half a million dollars in extra billing. This violates BC’s Medical Protection Act.

Although the Cambie clinic’s actions are illegal, the BC government is only seeking toensure the clinic stops these practices in the future. Canadian Doctors for Medicare iscalling for stronger punitive action to create a real deterrent to extra billing by for-profitclinics, and for accountability to BC citizens for their tax dollars.

The Canada Health Act stipulates that the federal government may withhold one dollarof cash transfer for every dollar collected through direct patient charges – a penalty thatshould be imposed in a case such as Cambie, where illegal extra billing has been continuously rampant.

“This is a prime example of what happens when the federal government doesn’t enforcethe Canada Health Act,” said Dr. Vanessa Brcic, executive member of Canadian Doctorsfor Medicare. “On behalf of Canadians who are emptying their savings accounts into thecoffers of for-profit clinics like Cambie, the federal government should be taking a muchtougher stance on working with the provinces to stop illegal billing practices, andinvesting in care that all Canadians can access in our public system.”

Towards a New Understanding

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SASKATCHEWAN’S CO-OPERATIVE COMMUNITY CLINICS AND THE GOVERNMENT OF SASKATCHEWAN

By Rochelle Elizabeth Smith

This dissertation is a study of the public policy-making process, the role of ideas and ideology in this process, and their combined effect on the relationship between social economy enterprises, particularly co-operatives, and government. It is also concerned with a central problem for all social economy organizations today: the impacts of public policy on funding, decision-making and strategy.

The central focus of this research is the relationship between three of Saskatchewan‘s co-operative Community Clinics and the provincial Government of Saskatchewan. In spite of a seeming congruence between the goals of the Community Clinics and successive provincial governments, the Clinics have not played a significant role in the reform and restructuring of the delivery of health care services in the province. This study seeks to examine this paradox with specific focus on the following overarching concerns:

• What role do ideas and ideology play in the policy-making process related to the co-operative Community Clinics? 

• What accounts for the ambiguity in the relationship between the Clinics and the government?

•  Under what conditions can the dominant paradigm in health policy, specifically regarding the co-operative Community Clinics, be changed?

Read this thesis HERE. (pdf)

Harper Hacks Down Our Medicare

By Danielle Martin
Board Chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare

Huff Post
July18, 2012

Canadians can feel it -- something's not right in our country when it comes to health care. We know our public system is fundamentally sound, but we also know that there is much work to be done to improve it and ensure it's as sustainable as we want it to be for generations to come. We see our health care providers and provincial governments struggling to improve services in the context of tight public budgets and an aging population. Almost everyone is trying to make medicare better.

But one critical player is missing from the effort -- where is our federal government when it comes to health care?

Pharmacare: Campaign for a National Drug Plan

Canadian Health Coalition

About the Campaign

Pharmacare means a national drug plan that would be publicly funded and administered, control costs, provide universal access and ensure the safe and appropriate use of drugs. It would cover medically necessary drug costs in the same way that Medicare now covers hospitals and physicians. The Canadian Health Coalition is a public advocacy organization dedicated to the preservation and improvement of Medicare.

Click HERE to visit their website.

July is officially Medicare Month in Saskatchewan

Click above to enlarge