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Myanmar The Waterloo Chromcle " published every Wednesday by The Fairway Group. a division of South- em Ontario Commumty Newspapers Inc, a division of Southam Publicar lions. a CanWest Company. The Views of our columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper. Dwayne Weidendor' 886-2830 Fax: 886-9383 editorial®waterloochmnjcle.ca salesewatertoochronideca composingowatedoochronicle.ca WATERLOO CHRONICLE The Waterloo Chm-ride welcomes letters m the Edlmr They should be signed with name, addmss and phone number and will be verified For actuary No unsigned Imus will he published Submissions may be edited [or Win. so pkue be brief (kipymdll in letters and other mate rials summed to the Publisher and accepted for publication remains with the author, but the whlilher and In "connect may freely rtpmr dure them in prim. eler'mnic or other forms Our mailing addresx vs " KingSt S , Quilt 20l _ Waterloo NN IPZ. our (mind-1R“ u editori_teMoochrrtobrrr " and our in number k ”679353 ken Hunt-Id llvbunlllt humid" Amalie Publisher Editor, En. 2t 5 may“! magma ell-"#4 Man-“(r Sula. 623-66] 7 Andrea Balls". Huh Trbanar- Hemmer. Ba. 27 Spurn sailor. Ext 229 Hummus 75 King St, South, Suite 201 Waterloo, Ontario N21 IP2 Associate Publisher: lmrmauonal Standard hestal Number Sula. an. iis SAL, 51332 Deb Dumeld Letters Policy Norma I Zyra Ivun Barlnl lawman l’uhlk anon: Mal] Sales Produn Agreement Number kin Bosveld 905-523-5800. Ext. 239 Audited circulation 26.05!) ISSN 08313410 40050478 W 91W" Melissa Hounslow l aum‘ Rulgwm Fern Pyrer Gerry Manic: Another pathway to health-care reform is to regard health as a fundamental human right. One important sign of any caring nation is the quality of its health-care system. But that quality is related to all aspects of society, especially the environ- ment, the economic status of families, occupation- al health and safety, and the status of Aboriginal peoples. So let's reform Canadian health with environmental, economic, and social justice fore, most in mind. Let's immediately restore the federal share of Medicare costs to 25 per cent and then increase it to 50 per cent to prevent cash-strapped provinces from cutting non-profit services. Next federal and Do supporters of the U.S. health care system need more economic evidence? Then observe the following points of comparison compiled by The Council of Canadians. (2) Public spending on health constitutes 15 per cent of Canada's total public expenditure. whereas the UG. spends nearly 19 per cent of its total on health. [3) Canadian spending on health care as a per- centage of the gross domestic product (GDP) was nine per cent in 2000, whereas in the U.S. the per- centage ofGDP was " per cent. So, what is the real agenda of those who pro- mote for-profit health care. like the Kirby commit. tee? They want to treat health like a commodity in the competitive marketplace. which is subject to NAFTA regulations. and to shift the costs from gov- ernments to individual users. In other words. the "virtue" of setriiliance trumps the public good and community well-being. In effect, the aim of the health-care marketeers is to transform the healing relationship of health care into a con- sumer-producer relationship. (3) Is the U.S. system accessible for all? Yet again the evidence strongly indicates "No." The working poor. the poor, the under-insured and the unin- sured all suffer reduced access to service, and over 45 million Americans have no health coverage. (1) Total health spending is roughly $3,300 per person in Canada. whereas the U.S. spends over $7,000 per person. (2) Does the for-profit system produce higher quality care? Again, the evidence is "No." In a 1999 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association the authors concluded that investor- owned health maintenance organizations (HMOsl delivered lower quality of care on 14 common indi- cators than not-for-profit HMOs. Furthermore. a current Harvard study of 182 US. health plans shows that patients rate the quality of for-profit health plans much lower than non-profit ones. (l) Is the U.S. system cheaper? The available data clearly indicate. "No." TWO separate articles in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1999 showed for-profit hospital care is more expensive than not-for-profit hospitals. The reasons are that free-market hospitals spend more on executive salaries and administration and they have to prtr duce a sizable profit margin for investors. For example, the Kirby committee recommend- ed that federal and provincial governments funnel more public funds into private, for-profit providers in Canada and the us. But Senator Kirby is in a potential conflict of interest, because he has been a director and shareholder of Extendicare. which is the largest. private, for-profit provider of home care in Canada. The Kirby recommendations also are flawed on economic grounds. as the Senate committee assumed that the us. system is more economical- ly sustainable. But the evidence overwhelmingly indicates that the ILS. system of health care inflates costs, decreases quality of care, and impedes access to care. let's examine the facts. Is the Canadian health- care system too costly? ast week a committee of the Canadian Senate, I chaired by Liberal Michael Kirby, issued a port on health care. But this report. intend- ed to pre-empl the Romanow Commission's report expected soon, is seriously flawed on sever- al counts. I‘HE CHRONICLE I Continued on [use l0 VIEWPOINT CAmbridge Mayor Doug Craig and Water- loo Mayor Lynne Mk3o1stencroft exploded over Kitchener Mayor Carl irahr's wistful and wish, Given the lack of mathemati- cal skill on the council's side, you'd think that short of getting expert advice (hurrah for that idea!), they'd have studied the numbers ad infinitum. But, to return to the idea of getting out- side help. that would have been the double-diamond. gold-plated answer to the big question: How much was the deal going to cost Waterloo? When our councillors were revived after gettingtheanswer,theycouldhavetriedsome other method of finance. Maybe they would have opted to take surplus pop bottles back to the store. Or maybe they could have worked a deal with ikhr's of'. the saying of sales slips Minor Blast: If you want to consider minuscule battle items, you'd have to pick the tizzies that two of our mayors got into over a fairly genteel needle from the third. Basic to all, if I hear the testi- mony rightly, council never held a session to go over the deal. You would think that under the cir- cumstances the councillors would have gnawed over the numbers again and again. We have all been told to the point of nau- sea that Waterloo has operated like a finely- tuned machine, that it hams like a queen bee off in seamh of romance. Eyewash! The RIM probe has shown that the municipal corporation biggies acted like kindergarten kids planning to operate a lemonade stand. Too bad. Havingthedealsignedinabistm would have been more appropriate to the piece Or they could have held off and signed it at a Newyear's Eve rumble We should save daylight year round Turning Dry: Wowee! So the RIM Park deal wasn't signed in a pub after all. A spokesman for the company withdrew that to-be-expected claim. A conversation misun- derstood, was the explanation, Ah, yes, yesterday is experience. tomorrow is hope; today is getting from one to the other. Incidentally, if you think time heals every- thing try sitting it out in a doctor's office. bll, how did you like the extra hour Wof snowing on the weekend? I'll bet that fewer people were late for for anything. including church. You have to wonder why we don't have daylight saving time the year round. Spend a winter in Halifax and you'll know how Prema- ture and grubby the early sunsets are. mummy gaM(ljllllltlltttt lil%illlMilllitlll0tltll MAW A' SAN DY BAIRD As a reporter you drew the assignment of cmfsing the county looking for damage and after a couple of years you knew where to look Still, most of the pranks were goodmatured and humorous, even if it took considerable muscle to undo the prank And I still think "that pelting a house with ttaqiteiowtArw.Theresuitishardtogetotr the brick Incidentally, a neighbour threw a heck of a scam into a cousin last Halloween. He shnwed up at his house disguised as a job, ID Years back there used to he = I vandalism aplenty with. for example. privies piled neck deep at the crossroads Halloween has grown tamer since then, with only a few spots marking the hooligans' progres'k Hot Stuff'. It seems that more and more and more we're having substanial fires, and that more and more of them are probed as arson. Back in what old-timers know as "the old days," arson fires were a rarity, but now almost every big blaze is regarded with suspi- cion. Of course, arson is proven in relatively few cases, but in some the suspi- 'i-ll don lingers Yes sir, it's really disgusting the way people go around telling terrible things about each om?! tletarE.at?solutely and completely true. In fairness, the newspaper has never denied it, but its silence indicated it wasn't loath to let readers think the journalists dug out the situation all by themselves You'd think that Mayor Lynne is busy enough with other things to take umhrage at a minor affront. Some people have bigger woes: Tale the chap whose swimming pool burned No Surprise: The RIM inquiry has been told that a disgruntled employee tipped The Record off to the problem with the numbers, and that's correct, ful comment about a one-city future, Both Craig and Woolstencroft erupted as if that were more than a light touch. II was ill- chosen perhaps, but it wasn't exactly a knee in the tummy. as such things go. Of course, you can go too far in fire-department efficiency. Take the case of the expert who installed unbreakable glass in all the fire alarms. Take the case some years ago when no claim was filed for a fire which destroyed a landmark. If they'd known. folks would have been surprised at that. Tricks or Tteats: And. speak- ing of things which aren't what they used to he, were poised for Halloween.