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Saturday, May 21, 2005Dr. Chaoulli made a philosophical pitch in his oral arguments, saying that Canadian prohibitions against allowing patients to privately contract for medical services were a basic violation of their rights. "People are dying on waiting lists," Dr. Chaoulli said in an interview, adding that his goal was to improve the public health care system, not to destroy it. Christopher P. Manfredi, chairman of the McGill University political science department, was in court, and said Dr. Chaoulli's style was a bit amateurish. "He ran out of time and the justices scolded him," he recalled. "It wasn't a great litigation performance." Still, several of the justices asked probing questions of the government's lawyers and seemed skeptical about their arguments against giving people a choice between private and public services. .....He argues that regulations that create long waiting times for surgery contradict the constitutional guarantees for individuals of "life, liberty and the security of the person," and that the prohibition against private medical insurance and care is for sick patients an "infringement of the protection against cruel and unusual treatment." He believes that Canada is disallowing the basic contract rights of doctors and patients, and that the country would serve the sick much better if it had a parallel private health care system, as in France and many other industrialized countries. His critics fear he'll turn Canada into the United States: What is the hallmark of health-care delivery in the United States? It gives quickest care to those who have the most money. Actually, that's not what happens in the United States. With the exception of celebrities and politicians (our royalty?) you don't really get preferential treatment based on your ability to pay. But, isn't that what's happening in Canada now? The rich can go to the States and buy their hip replacements while the poor are left to languish in Canada's long waiting lines. posted by Sydney on 5/21/2005 01:38:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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