Definitely NOT the Romanow report
Consumer Empowerment in Canadian Health Care
AIMS On-Line for late November 2002
AIMS offers Health Care Alternative with the release of Definitely NOT the Romanow report and six of twelve background reports in the Health Care Reform Background Series. Read media coverage and more.
Shed no tiers for medicare; AIMS makes case for parallel private-public health delivery
The head of Canada's health care commission, Roy Romanow, has made it clear that his forthcoming report will continue to ensure that "two-tier" health care is forbidden in Canada. In this piece from the National Post, AIMS’ President Brian Lee Crowley explains that many of Mr. Romanow's concerns are ideological, and have little to do with the quality of care delivered within the public system. “Romanow clings to a system that outlaws private spending on publicly insured services, in the mistaken belief that parallel systems rob the public system of resources, while both objective and subjective international rankings show that multiple tiers of access are fully compatible with high quality public systems, high levels of care overall, high levels of patient satisfaction and public health outcomes as good or better than Canada's," says Crowley. Publication: NP, November 25 2002
AIMS in La Presse on Health Care
In his newest role as a contributing author to La Presse, a French language daily in Montreal, AIMS’ President Brian Lee Crowley has started off with this article looking at why Roy Romanow, the head of the federal commission into the future of health care is part of the problem, not the solution. Administrators of our health-care system suffer no direct consequences from poor customer service. They aren't even answerable to a demanding regulatory agency, other than the vague federal power to withhold funding for violations of the equally vague principles of the Canada Health Act. Other than notoriously ineffective channels of complaints to politicians, letters to the editor, and calls to open-line shows, dissatisfied consumers have little power to influence the system. This translates into excessive waiting times, error tolerance, and the growing use of health services outside "official" channels. Says Crowley, “Roy Romanow thinks this unresponsive monopoly is just fine and onl
Give U.S. no reason to close border, Canada warned
On November 22, 2002 AIMS was the Atlantic Canadian organizer of a national consultation on US-Canada relations. This project, called "Borderlines" is a national, non-partisan effort put together by organizations and individuals across the country who share the belief that the evolution of Canada’s place in North America may be the most important issue of our time. In this piece from the Ottawa Citizen, journalist Robert Sibley highlights one of the key messages heard again and again throughout the day long event: The primary security threat to Canada is economic, and it comes from the United States. If we fail at the operational level to prevent a cross-border terrorist strike, even through no fault of our own, if we fail even once so that American lives are lost at the hands of agents who launched their assault from Canadian soil, the campaign to keep the border open will be immediately and entirely lost.
Borderlines: Atlantic Canada and the Canada – American Border of the Future
AIMS pathbreaking conference on the importance of all facets of the Canada-US relationship
We’re headed the wrong way
In this piece from the Globe & Mail, Brian Crowley, AIMS President and co-author of the forthcoming Definitely Not the Romanow Report: Achieving Equity, Sustainability, Accountability and Consumer Empowerment in Canadian Health Care, explains why any health-care system that makes visits to a family doctor freely available but rations high-cost treatments for life-threatening ailments has it backward. He then takes aim at the soon to be released Romanow Report: “Mr. Romanow is wedded to an old paternalistic model -- one that's been overtaken by technology and by rising public expectations. It suggests experts know best which services we should get, how much they should cost, and how long we should wait. Let's tell Canadians the truth about medicare's unsustainability and involve them in making the tough choices to ensure that medicare's best features are there when we need them.” Publication: G&M, November 22 2002
Why we don’t got milk
New Brunswick was recently hauled before a dispute settlement panel under our Byzantine agreement on interprovincial trade. The New Brunswick Farm Products Commission had refused to license a Nova Scotia company, Farmers Dairy, to market its milk products in New Brunswick. Farmers, quite rightly, thought this violated New Brunswick’s commitments under the Agreement on Internal Trade, that tries to establish the apparently revolutionary principle that Canadians should be able to do business anywhere in our fair country without being discriminated against by governments. New Brunswick lost, and was ordered to rectify the problem and issue Farmers a license. In this column from the Halifax Chronicle Herald and the Moncton Times Transcript AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley describes how the delay in implementing that ruling is hurting consumers and business alike. Publication: CHH & MTT, November 20 2002
Will Canada Ever Grow Up on Defence? The Peter Pan Syndrome
Author and historian Jack Granatstein's perspective on what needs to be done to sustain the military's ability to meet domestic and international responsibilities
What should Medicare be?
Broadening the debate on healthcare services