The Hypocrisy never ends... (en francais)

Military, RCMP get private health care

CTV.ca News Staff

Canadian soldiers will soon receive treatment from private doctors, thanks to a deal the Department of National Defense (DND) has struck with Calian Technologies Ltd.

Over the next five years the government will pay more than $400 million to Calian in exchange for various skilled professionals, like laboratory technicians. They will also get doctors to fill in for the army's medical staff as needed.

Michael McBane of the Canadian Health Coalition finds the government's actions hypocritical.

"They're the guardian of public health care in Canada, and yet when it comes to delivering service in their own jurisdiction they're privatizing," he told CTV's David Akin.

...more

I haven't had the time to do any background on this, but I believe this has already been going on for years. This is just a new deal, with a new company. More on that when I have time to dig some.

Just another example of say one thing and do another by our favourite Liberal spin-meisters. The great defenders of single tier health care are "the largest purchaser of private health care services in the country." I wonder if politicians still avail themselves of the excellent services at the National Defence Medical Centre in Ottawa?

Go figure. And they call the Conservatives 'scary'.

You gotta love the quote from Defence Minister Bill Graham:

Defence Minister Bill Graham defended his department's spending, arguing Canada's health services are insufficient for the military.

"For a long time we had our own health services which covered everything," he told Akin. "Now we are unable to do that and we find it more efficient to go outside."

WHAT!? Our national icon of universal healthcare isn't the most efficient way to deliver health services? Hmm - makes you wonder about what's going to happen to that $41 billion dollars over the next 5 years. For some strange reason, visions of a bottomless black pit keep popping into my head.