Healthcare reform

I really think we should get healthcare reformed and our current system dismantled. Socialized medicine is trash and needs to go.

Yeah it needs to be reformed. Get rid of BC's premiums.
I suggest again a 10% tax on guns, ammo and American flags sold in Canada.

Except, it's a defining Canadian institution, one that guarantees Canadian Universal access to health care. So you don't like it, feel free to move to another country where they don't have Universal Health Care.

He's not wrong...it does need to see some reform.

Maybe some streamlining of the upper bureaucratic levels.

A significant increase in focus on front line, versus emergency, accessibility.

A hard one here...less individual Province, more country wide collaboration.

Etc, etc.

Definitely room for improvement.

It might need reform, but he's still a troll. Best to avoid it, lest it reproduce.

My idea of reform is a little simpler. I was a preschooler when Canada's national healthcare system was created in 1966, but do remember. The question was how to pay for it. New tax, premium, other? Provinces were given authority to determine that. This means new taxes/premiums/fees were created to pay for it, the money didn't come out of the provincial treasury. When provincial governments whine the feds aren't paying their share, it's complete bullshit. There are new taxes paying for it, their government was given authority to determine the nature of it.

In Manitoba, we didn't have any provincial sales tax. The government of the day chose a 5% provincial sales tax instead of a premium. Ontario and Alberta created a premium. The promise was Manitoba PST would go only to healthcare, nothing else. It charged manufactured goods only, no food, no services, no real estate. And steel toe work boots were exempt because they're necessary for working individuals to get a job. Today the PST is charged on restaurant meals but not groceries, services, everything the GST is on. Steel toe work boots are no longer exempt. And it's hiked to 8%. The last increase from 7% to 8% didn't even pretend to go to healthcare. It was a major plank in the provincial PC party's platform that they would roll-back the PST hike; back to 7%. We're yet to see that happen.

The hike from 7% to 8% paid for a hike in the premier's salary, cabinet ministers and MLAs, senior bureaucrats including judges, and an exemption for school tax for seniors. A couple seniors came round to all the parties before that budget, lobbying for the exemption. They complained about school tax on their cottage. Their cottage. A cottage is a second house, especially a winterized one. The home owner property tax credit only applies to your primary residence, a cottage doesn't get that tax credit. But a lot of seniors have trouble paying for a single home. If someone can afford a cottage, they can afford to pay property tax on it. I want to roll back all those things the PST hike paid for, in order to roll back the tax hike. Yes, that means rolling back the premier's salary. Tough!

I've run into conservative voters who want to abolish the entire public school system. They want to abolish school tax, force everyone to send their children to private school. I calculated how much that would cost. Looked up the budget for the school division where I live. Take their budget, subtract the money they get from the province, then divide by the number of students in the school division. The result is $10,000 per child per year. Parents would have to pay that for every grade from Kindergarten through grade 12. That's in addition to what parents pay now. There's no way young parents could afford that! School tax spreads out the cost. Everyone pays regardless whether you have children or not, and throughout your adult life. From the time you move out of your parent's house until death. If any seniors ask why the have to pay school tax now, the answer is because they paid so little when their children were in school. Any move toward abolishing public school is bad, and any exemption for school tax is just that.

I mention all this because PST was supposed to fund healthcare. Only healthcare, nothing but healthcare.

I would propose something completely different. Leave the PST at 7%. But cancel provincial personal income tax, and replace it with a health insurance premium. Model it on Ontario's healthcare premium. Ontario used to charge 1/3 to employees, 2/3 to employers. But too many employers cheated, forced employees to pay for both. That was illegal, but employers threatened to fire anyone who reported them. When Bob Rae became Ontario premier, he replaced it with a payroll tax. So employers paid all of it. That'll learn 'em! When Ontario Liberals got back in power, they restored the healthcare premium, but made it different. They kept the payroll tax, but made that the employer's portion. The new premium was charged only to employees. Separating it into two taxes meant employers can't cheat. Manitoba already has a payroll tax, so just make that the employer's portion. Adjust it to exactly match Ontario's payroll tax. Some employers would pay a little more, some a little less, on average payroll tax would go up 4%. That's 4% of what they're paying now, not 4% of the payroll. And ensure 100% of the payroll tax goes to healthcare. Not healthcare and something else, because that means just general revenue. We need to see exactly where our tax dollars go, and hold politicians to account. And introduce a Manitoba health insurance premium that exactly matches Ontario's. Again the premium would be paid by employees only. And again, this point of this is to completely abolish Manitoba provincial personal income tax.