[url=http://www.fraserinstitute.org/commerce.web/newsrelease.aspx?nid=5291]FRASER INSTITUTE: CANADIANS ACCESS TO NEW MEDICINES DELAYED OR
BLOCKED BY GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND DRUG PLANS[/url]

They want a national drug program that is nothing more then corporate welfare for private insurers. They do not bother to mention the ongoing litigation or recalls that has delayed drugs to begin with. The fact that the provinces have to foot the bill for the costs either way is ignored also. So instead of it going to the feds to the provences it will end up being rubber stamped by the feds and then go to 6 private comapies where they decide if the drug coverage will work with their bottom line and fuck your health. Yet another have baked scheme by the Fraser.

   

I love how the far right wing nuts preach free market, then go and bail out banks and give corporations handouts.

Isn't corporate socialism still socialism?

   

Yeah..I wish they would quit handing over our cash to the Auto sector and Bombardier...



oh wait!.... thats to appease them Socialist whinny union fucks.

   

Here is a good example of a lawsuit. People will demand a drug be payed for but ignore the fact that when drugs fail they can kill. The reason drugs are not covered is they have only met the bare minimum testing standards at the federal level. Drugs are like software in that they have no idea what all the possible outcomes may be and thus the drug plans are only going to cover the ones that are the most cost effective and have a proven track record of effectivness. So many times wonder drugs have come out only years later to end up like thalidomide

   

I didn't see anything about a national drug plan in there. It was more like privitization of the existing drug care programs. I'm no fan of the Fraser Institute (especially sice they are a registered charity and are chiefly comprised of honkin' rich people--I mean, c'mon!), but I will say that they tend to be pro-market as opposed to pro-big business.

   

Nation wide deregulation of provincial drug programs is the mantra of the Fraser here Zip and that is their 'national plan'. Since it is not uniform from province to province (some provinces don't even have drug programs) and more importantly not currently deemed an essential service under the health act they think now is the time to cut out the provincial programs under the guise of 'free markets' so they can saddle up to the troth of the pork barrel spending that will be the unregulated stream of federal and provincial money that is the subsidized access to private insurance. Simply put they want a US system of insurance and they want it now before the baby boomer's need drugs in vast numbers as they grow older as demand is only going to grow here and they want unfettered access to profits.

   

Yup, no doubt about it. However, I couldn't see them backing a plan that called for active government subsidies of drug companies.

Fact is the US is the best place in the world to get sick if you have money. If you don't have money, you're way better off in Europe or Canada.

   

Fact is?

The World Health Organization's ranking
of the world's health systems.
Source: WHO World Health Report

Rank . Country

1 ... France
2 ... Italy
3 ... San Marino
4 ... Andorra
5 ... Malta
6 ... Singapore
7 ... Spain
8 ... Oman
9 ... Austria
10... Japan
11... Norway
12... Portugal
13... Monaco
14... Greece
15... Iceland
16... Luxembourg
17... Netherlands
18... United Kingdom
19... Ireland
20... Switzerland
21... Belgium
22... Colombia
23... Sweden
24... Cyprus
25... Germany
26... Saudi Arabia
27... United Arab Emirates
28... Israel
29... Morocco
30... Canada
31... Finland
32... Australia
33... Chile
34... Denmark
35... Dominica
36... Costa Rica
37... United States of America

   

the U.S is 47th in life expectancy and Canada is 7th

   

Now I know why the US healthcare is ranked so bad. We don't need to improve it since we are going to die earlier anyways. Now it makes sense

Feeling bad? Here, eat another BigMac!

   

These think tanks are required to churn out reports on how to improve the world at a rate suitable to keep them employed. I doubt they even believe them.

   

The WHO ranks Canada's health system as 30th in the world. Only Canadian spending on Health is very high, 10 to 10 and 1/2 per cent of the GDP with 6% coming from government. It's near the top in spending.

   

Health care is an expensive, critical issue but the actual available information on it has it's limit. There is no comparison ever between the USA, Canada and the UK for example. There is never any commenting why health care in the UK is half the cost as in the USA, as a percent of GDP. There's an agency in Canada that is concerned with health care expenditures but there's only ever been the most cursory data from it in the newspapers. This ranking of national health care systems by the WHO is just a bureaucratic exercise, means nothing.

   

in infant mortality rate the U.S is 43rd Canada 32nd


and the U.S has the second highest infant mortality rate in the industrialised world

   

But if you have money, that's where you go when you're sick. Bascially it's the best int he world for th erich and realy, really bad if you're poor. All in all, quite in keeping with the American ethos.