Letters, April 22

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/04/2024 (873 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Time for a new health-care vision

Let’s imagine that you have fallen into a rabbit hole. You wake up and find yourself in Manitoba in 1970.

In the ’60s, every doctor and every health-care institution in the province of Manitoba operated on a fee-for-service basis. There was a glut of providers and never enough patients. There was always fierce competition to attract more clients.

In the current environment, the consultant goes into hiding to avoid the crush of people trying to get an appointment. Doctors have become very scarce and hard to find.

The government in the ’60s provided us with a comprehensive, universal health-care insurance plan; without premiums, deductibles or co-pays. There was only hospital and medical coverage at the time. Nursing homes and home care weren’t covered until later. Patients were accorded the utmost courtesy and were given the warmest welcome at the clinics and the hospitals.

The free market in health-care provision was cost effective, very efficient and produced an outstanding standard of care. There were seven hospitals in Winnipeg, each of them endeavouring to recruit the very best doctors and nurses they could get. A fabulous clinician could bring in oodles of sick patients. The Winnipeg Clinic, The Manitoba Clinic, The Medical Arts Building, The Abbott Clinic and The Hollenberg Clinic were all centres of excellence. Many of their specialists had trained in the best hospitals in Europe and America. Some called these clinics the Mayo Clinics of the North.

The hospital boards consisted of religious nuns and others with a missionary zeal. The board members were all Good Samaritans. Most hospitals were run by churches and service clubs. There was no place for political activists or those who wish to promote equity, inclusion or reconciliation.

I was a young doctor at the time, very content, and completely convinced that Winnipeg was the best place in the world to practise medicine. I was also confident that patients received the best care in the world.

There are those among us who fear the dire prospect of a return to “privatized medicine” in Manitoba. What am I missing? Where was the suffering? Is it better today?

There is one constant corollary to a government-managed economy, and that is shortages and abject misery.

There is a groundswell of unhappiness in our midst. At the time of our last election we saw signs everywhere that said, “Health care needs to be fixed.” We have gotten ourselves into a mess in health care. Is doing more of the same going to get us out of trouble?

This is an accurate portrayal of what healthcare was like before the Canada Health Act enacted by Lester B. Pearson in 1972. Pearson insisted that there had to be public administration, i.e. government-managed health care. That is the root cause of our health-care system dysfunction.

If I were the current minister of health, I would start a comprehensive universal health-care insurance system in a heartbeat. In my next move, I would welcome back a robust free enterprise delivery system.

I would adopt the American Schedule of Benefits as the fee schedule. It has been around since 1965 and has all the kinks ironed out of it. This would be a big advantage to the snowbirds and others with cross-border interests.

This could enable Manitobans to access any health-care provider in all of North America and never pay a dime. Canadian providers would have to compete with the best doctors and hospitals in the US. Sick people could go to the elite clinics in the U.S., such as the Mayo Clinic, for a second opinion.

Henry P. Krahn

Winnipeg

Climate and health emergencies

Re: Lack of climate investment has high cost; The impact of diabetes on Manitoba health care (April 19); and The courts and climate change (Editorial, April 19)

Kudos to your editorial team, perhaps unintentionally, for publishing over two side-by-side pages three significant pieces all underlining a common societal tragedy: our abysmal shortage of upstream, preventative thinking.

Speaking as president of the Green Party of Manitoba: by ignoring for decades and many Earth Days the warnings from our scientists, environmentalists and health experts, we’re clearly in both a climate and health “emergency.” Little wonder when our elected leaders, with their short-term campaign-cycle mindsets, ignore upstream solutions to big problems that don’t see an immediate payback — and votes.

As your authors Ron Thiessen and Jonb Gerrard point out, unless we address preserving and conserving our natural spaces and address preventative approaches to illness respectively, the climate and health crises will both continue to spiral completely out of control.

With increased severity and frequency of wildfires, storms and floods will come increased rates of respiratory illness, heart disease, eco-stress, physical and emotional pain, suffering and death.

Without addressing growing social disparity and poverty with programs such as a guaranteed basic income, families will continue facing chronic stress, poor nutrition and inadequate housing leading to sky-rocketing rates of diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancer, mental illness, addiction, physical and emotional pain, suffering and death.

Only once we look upstream at root causes and forgo Band-Aid solutions will we ever meaningfully address the climate and health emergencies. Otherwise, as your lead editorial suggested, the only course of action will be class-action lawsuits against those short-sighted, vote-chasing governments.

Dennis Bayomi

Winnipeg

Indigenous health concerns

Re: The impact of diabetes on Manitoba health care (Think Tank, April 19)

A large percentage of people with Type 2 diabetes are Indigenous. From the government website, Framework for Diabetes in Canada: “the legacy of colonial policies and practices have also contributed to inequities experienced by Indigenous Peoples, as well as systemic racism, intergenerational traumas, disruption of cultural identity and self-determination, and restricted access to resources.”

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse has condemned the budget for ignoring Indigenous rights to federal lands. By being forced onto reserves, their traditional diets were forfeited for what was available to them on reserves. Children attending residential schools were fed poor diets.

Grocery stores are in the business of making money. When transportation costs are high, the dense nutrient-rich foods are replaced by light empty-calorie food. One only need to look at their weekly flyers to see how much of the advertised “food” is healthy. This goes back to the manufacturers who have a grip on what people eat. Read the ingredient list on labels and don’t be surprised to see sugar in various forms as well as salt.

It is interesting that Jon Gerrard does not mention that the government of Manitoba is providing more funds for school programs to feed children healthy food. He addresses the Manitoba government but for Indigenous people, the funding must come from the federal government. Indigenous people want self-determination but until the wrongs of previous governments are addressed, including land rights, keeping them in a poverty situation will only cause an increase in the level of diabetes.

Cathy Coss

Warren