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.”

26 Comments

  1. Dan says:

    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.

    • Ted H says:

      That is one of the most concise and best descriptions of conservatism I have seen.

    • Doug says:

      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.

    • Northbaytrapper says:

      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.

    • Andrew says:

      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.

    • SF Thomas says:

      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

  2. frmr disgruntled Con, now Happy Liberal says:

    Tim Hudak=tea bagging weasel…..

  3. TheSilentObserver says:

    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

  4. jon evan says:

    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?

      • jon evan says:

        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.

        • Attack! says:

          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?

          • Andrew says:

            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.

          • jon evan says:

            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!

  5. AmandaM says:

    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

  6. The Doctor says:

    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?

  7. allegra fortissima says:

    Most Europeans have public health care, and this is how it works in Germany:

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91971406

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