— Musings —09.07.2011 10:27 AM
Tea Party Tim: illegal user fees are okay by me
Holy Stock Day! Check this out.
“Hudak won’t say whether he’d crack down on doctors charging illegal user fees
TORONTO (CP) – Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak says he’s committed to a publicly funded and universal health care system, but refused to say today whether he’d crack down on illegal user fees if elected premier.
A doctor in Whitby, Ont., is facing a disciplinary hearing for charging patients a $1,000 annual fee to receive care.
Asked repeatedly whether he would go after doctors who charge user fees, Hudak rattled off a list of platform pledges on health care, such as bringing in more doctors to underserviced areas…
He says he also doesn’t want to see “obstacles” in the way to stop patients from receiving treatment.”
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Back when fire departments were private companies, they would show up to burning houses, and negotiate a price.
The free market can be very cruel. Conservatives don’t particularly care.
Fortunately Canadians understand that health is too important to be strictly a for-profit enterprise. Just look at how horrible the American health care system is.
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That is one of the most concise and best descriptions of conservatism I have seen.
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Thanks. I’d like to think that we can beat conservatism when we get as good at the soundbites as they are.
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The only instance I’m aware of “private fire brigades” behaving in the way you describe goes back to the days of Marcus Licinius Crassus in the Roman Republic. I’m no free-market fundamentalist, but I hardly think that a Roman patrician exploiting his privileged position in a state with a very rudimentary concept of public services (they had no public prosecutors!) has much weight as an example of the free market gone wild.
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Then you’re not aware of very much. Look up the private fire departments founded by insurance companies in the 18th and 19th centuries.
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Uh, it just happened in Tennasee when a “libertarian” exurb resident refused to pay taxes to the county to cover fire costs. A fire burned the house down as the fire crews were legally obliged to not until “pay and spray” payments were made.
http://www.google.com/m/search?oe=UTF-8&client=ms-rim&q=town+fire+taxes+burns&channel=browser&hl=en&start=10&sa=N
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Got any documentation to share showing those private fire brigades “showing up and negotiating a price?” The Wikipedia entry describing the insurance company’s private fire departments doesn’t really match up with your initial claim. I suspect you’ve garbled the Crassus story into the history of the private insurers’ fire brigades, either accidentally or for rhetorical effect.
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Wikipedia doesn’t mention it?? Oh well, it can’t be true. Citing Wikipedia as the sole source of information is just asking for mockery.
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Just look at how good the healthcare is in France, Italy and in the other 37 countries that ranked above Canada last year….all of whom have private care.
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That’s paid by public insurance.
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My parents live in the US and receive excellent care. Mom had hip replacement last year, between visiting her MD, then referral to specialist to having the operation a total of 3 weeks. Father had spinal surgery. Done in six of the appointment with the specialist/surgeon (it was a longer wait because he had to drop some weight). And what are the wait times for these procedures in Ontario?
Doctor’s in the US don’t have to deal with capitation on billing and claw back of fees. There is a shortage of doctor’s willing to work over their capitation limits, not a shortage of doctors.
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Something similar can still happen in some parts of the US actually if you don’t pay an ‘optional’ Fire Fee: http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/local/Firefighters-watch-as-home-burns-to-the-ground-104052668.html
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Tim Hudak=tea bagging weasel…..
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As a Whitbyite, very interested to hear that private medicine has infiltrated my town. If I had a name and/or address, I’d be investigating in a heartbeat
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Yes, perhaps you could rustle up a posse of locals brandishing pitchforks, etc.
Frontier justice, Whitby-style.
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I said investigate. No need to attach reactionary actions to my words. Frontier justice Whitby style does sound humourous though, if you are capable of picturing it
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your wish…
http://www.ottawasun.com/2011/08/31/doctor-to-face-disciplinary-hearing-over-annual-patient-fee
http://cpso.on.ca/docsearch/details.aspx?view=9&id=%2067982
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Doctor+with+benefits/5315827/story.html
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Mr. Hudak is the progressive one here because he is current with public opinion regarding the need for an alternative medical system in Canada. It was in 2005 in the Chaoulli case that the Supreme Court declared Quebec’s ban on private health insurance unconstitutional. A poll released a year later revealed that public opinion favoured a private option if the public system wasn’t working.
Believe me the public system ain’t working! Mr. Hudak knows that and is being honest unlike his opponent! Why isn’t his opponent tell us the truth. Or is he planning higher public health care premiums if he gets elected?
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http://www.canadians.org/activistblog/?p=500
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/august/new_poll_shows_canad.php
This story says opposite.
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You’re right. It’s a story……..
Come visit my hospital and talk to my patients who have have been waiting for two years just to see a specialist and they’ll tell you another story! Yeah, great Canadian health care system: a model for the world.
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and where is that, and how would two (or+) tier medicine fix that? Will the relatively small number of specialists suddenly flock to small towns & grant instant access once they have the license to gouge? Or will the small towners still have to get on their waiting list and come to them in the big cities … and mortgage their houses to pay the bill?
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If a specialist takes a alternative payment patient, it frees them up to see a patient from the public system that operates with budgets.
Specialists perform only perform as many procedures as they are budgeted for via their billings.
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Fine, have it your way.
But don’t get sick because Daddy McGuinty won’t care and I’ll only care when I see you in two years if you’re still around! So line up and shut up: that’s the Canadian way in health care but your dog gets better care! Wow!
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Dear Tim,
Tim, there is a reason why the doctor is facing a disciplinary hearing. Are you not in support of the governing body’s own rules?
These kinds of fees are typical of American family doctors. My grandparents were asked to pay $1600 to have the privilege of on their close-to-home Bonita Springs, FL general practitioner’s roster. They found another GP. It’s these kind of fees that are the impediment to care, Tim, and you should go after them, just as much as the $1600 was an impediment to my grandparents’ receipt of care close to their home.
I would strongly encourage you take some time to bone up on the issues before speaking again. Let us know when you and your team can speak intelligently on any and all issues facing Ontarians today. I don’t expect that will be much before Oct. 7, at the very earliest.
AmandaM
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Is there something I’m missing here? If the doctor in question is facing a disciplinary hearing for charging these fees, why is there any need for politicians to get involved in this process one way or another? And in fact, if a politician (including, of course Tim Hudak) commented on the case one way or another, wouldn’t that be an improper meddling in a disciplinary process that’s supposed to be independent and impartial?
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Most Europeans have public health care, and this is how it works in Germany:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91971406