Green Health Pages

Page 2 News:

Some Facts on Energy Conservation – March.2001
* Nuclear power not even needed
- If existing buildings were retrofitted, and new ones were designed, to be energy efficient, Toronto and all of Ontario would need no more electricity than what is produced at Niagara Falls and at the various hydro dams around the province?
- Two-and-a-half to five times more jobs are created by developing energy efficiency than are created by building and operating a new power generating station?
- It is cheaper to increase energy efficiency than it is to continue operating a thermal generating plant - regardless of whether it is run on coal, natural gas or nuclear energy - even when the cost of building the plant and delivering its power are not counted in the
equation?
- Through energy efficiency, Seattle saved twice as much energy as Chicago did. As a result, its electricity prices were half those in Chicago?
- Nearly 70 per cent of the energy in the fuel used to generate electricity at Ontario's coal-fired and nuclear generating stations is wasted and released as heat emissions?
http://www.rmi.org
http://www.tellus.org
http://www.eren.doe.gov
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Call for Prohibition of Genetically Modified Fish - March.16.2001
OTTAWA - NDP fisheries critic Peter Stoffer this week called for a prohibition on raising genetically modified fish in Canada's coastal waters.
   An American company called A/F Protein has applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval to commercialize a species of genetically modified salmon and sell it to the aquaculture industry. The eggs and young fish are being developed at A/F Protein's Canadian subsidiary, Aqua Bounty Farms, in Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.
   "We're opening up a Pandora's Box, and without proper risk assessment, who knows what this will mean for Canada's natural fish stocks," the MP for Sackville-Musquodoboit Valley-Eastern Shore said. "We need a transparent process, and the Minister has to listen to the concerns of the scientific community as well as of the fishing communities affected by this."
    The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has yet to act on recommendations and concerns of the scientific community.  Both Health Canada and the fisheries department have closed-door approval processes that will not reveal applications for new genetically modified food products to the public until they have been given the go-ahead. There have been no published studies conducted examining the health risks of genetically modified fish, nor are there specific regulations governing their release.
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End  the Cruel Treatment and Slaughter of  Horses in Canada
http://helphorses.com/
* There is a petition effort at this site.
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GENEaction Notes – Mar.15.2001
   Some exciting issues were discussed at last night's GENEaction meeting.

1.   The National Farmers Union of Canada has adopted a strong new policy for a ban on Genetically Modified Foods.
See http://www.nfu.ca/gmfood-ban.htm
Or read the text below.
   The position they have taken is nearly everything GENEaction would want. And there is a web form petition on the site.
http://www.nfu.ca/petition.htm

2.   Greenpeace Canada has released a Shoppers' Guide to GMO Free Food online at
http://greenpeacecanada.org/e/test/html/guide.html
   The guide can be read on the web or downloaded as a pdf file.

3.   GENEaction folks had a lively debate on the Cloning of Embryos and other issues. This is too detailed to go into, but it the issue here is the Genetic Modification of the Human Race. Ethically, no group, government or person has the moral right to do it, and once it gets started no one will be able to control it.
   Scientists in Italy are already going ahead with uncontrolled cloning. Human genes are being transplanted into pigs here in Canada in Transgenic Engineering. And the Transgenic stuff is thought to be an even greater danger that will produce super pests and other monstrosities that may destroy us.
   Frankenfood issues will soon be joined by Frankenpeople/animals issues, and there is fear that a new sort of Eugenics is happening -- and that the human race will be modified by Transnational Corporations that are buying patents on our genetic makeup.
    This is a moral debate we should all be involved in, yet the GE Corporations are attempting to keep the debate in only scientific forums where they can win. Their tack is to say that it must be proved that harm will come about in order to block any kind of genetic engineering. These are greedy corporations that do not feel they must prove what they are doing is safe.
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HOW NOW, MAD COW?- Friday, March 9, 2001
   Comment by Worldwatch Institute researchers, Brian Halweil and Dani Nierenberg on how globalization, economics and poor animal husbandry are responsible for our current animal-borne epidemics.
- read the full article
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Gene Action 2001- Report on the Jan.10th Toronto meeting
By Gary Morton
Background:
   The Gene Action group stages actions and has speakers & workshops on Genetic Engineering (GE) and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's). GE and GMO's are a big issue when it comes to food products in 2001. A timeline is involved when dealing with genetic issues. Futurists now say that the information age has passed its peak and we are in a new genetic age that could explode and get out of control quickly.
 - read the full report
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Health Canada scientists gagged - Feb.2001
* Editor's Note - Scientists and other officials should probably not be advising people to eat beef at all. Nowadays beef cows are grain-fed and so diseased they have to be pumped full of antibiotics to survive. Unless it is beef from cows raised in a freer manner, eating beef is supporting animal cruelty and risky.
   Health Canada reimposed a gag order Monday on its scientists after two of them questioned a decision to ban Brazilian beef.
   Dr. Margaret Haydon,  a scientist who questioned the ban last week was told that the department's public relations officers were the only ones authorized to speak to the media about Health Canada policies.
   The gag order was reimposed less than five months after Madam Justice Danièle Tremblay-Lamer ruled it was "unreasonable" for Health Canada to ask its scientists not to speak out on public health matters.
The reaction was swift from groups who fought to have the previous gag order lifted.
   "In a democracy, people who speak out in the public interest should be allowed to speak out in the public interest — no matter who they work for," Angela Rickman, deputy director of the Sierra Club of Canada, said.
   Maude Barlow, national chairwoman of the Council of Canadians, said the government is censoring the wrong people. "These are highly trained scientists who are the only ones who should be advising the public on health matters, rather than the politicians and the bureaucrats," she said. "The government is clearly backpedalling like crazy because of a silly and short-sighted ban on Brazilian beef."
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GeneACTION - newsclips - Feb.2001
- Human cloning is not far off. A doctor in Rome said last month he will try to clone a human being within the next year. He expects to gather a group of like-minded scientists in an unknown location and implant an egg, it nucleus fertilized by the DNA of another person, into the womb of a surrogate mother.
- Wired Magazine found a researcher who wants to clone the dead son of a European man, provided the two can agree on a price. The genetic material would be provided by the son's frozen tissue samples kept by dad in a freezer.
- City council in Minneapolis, Minnesota has dedicated that city to going totally organic. Great news! Let's get our city to do the same. Plant our city with organic gardens - plant the Oak Ridges Moraine with organic farms - organic food tastes better than smog- organic soil drains better than asphalt.
- Canada still refuses to sign BioSafety Protocol, an agreement that enables countries to control or reject the importation of GMOs by transnational corporations. Canada continues its food wars on the rest of Canada and the rest of the world.
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GENETICALLY MODIFIED (GM) BUG 'COULD END ALL LIFE'
Sent by:sam@mymetameme.com
http://www.healthisthegreatestwealth.com

from The New Zealand Herald 03.02.2001 GENETICALLY MODIFIED (GM) BUG 'COULD END ALL LIFE'
   All life on Earth could be destroyed by genetically modified bacteria, a scientist has told the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification.
   Four scientists gave evidence for the Green Party at the hearing this week via video link from the United States.
   Soil ecologist Elaine Ingham spoke about a plant-killing GM bacteria that her Oregon State University research team prevented from being released into the environment.
   Dr Ingham said the alcohol-producing bacteria had been approved for field trials when her team discovered its lethal effects.
   She believed the widespread plant deaths caused by the bacteria would in turn affect all life on Earth.
   The GM Klebsiella planticola produced alcohol from post-harvest crop residue. The leftover organic sludge, containing the bacteria, would be returned to fields as fertilizer.
   Dr Ingham said she had independently tested the bacteria on plants, which the regulatory authority had failed to do.
   "After seven days, all wheat plants turned into slime."
   This example showed the need for better risk assessment of ecological impact.
   Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said the risks of GM organisms to the environment were currently unknown. Outdoor field trials of GM crops should never be allowed under these circumstances.
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International Monetary Fund Water Privatization Kills Millions each Year - 9 Feb 2001
(IMF Forces Water Privatization on Poor Countries)
info from: Sara Grusky Globalization Challenge Initiative
   A random review of IMF loan policies in forty countries reveals that, during 2000, IMF loan agreements in 12 countries included conditions imposing water privatization or full cost recovery.  In general, it is African countries, and the smallest, poorest and most debt-ridden countries that are being subjected to IMF conditions on water privatization and full cost recovery.
   Ironically, the majority of these loans were negotiated under the IMF's new Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), a reform announced with great fanfare in 1999 when IMF officials claimed that the new loan facility would re-focus the IMF's controversial structural adjustment measures on activities that borrowing government's would identify as leading to poverty reduction.  Rather than contributing to poverty reduction, water privatization and greater cost recovery make water less accessible and less affordable to the low income communities that make up the majority of the population in developing countries.  The most immediate impact of reducing the accessibility and affordability of water falls on women and children.
   More than five million people, most of them children, die every year from illnesses caused from drinking poor quality water.  When water become more expensive and less accessible, women and children, who bear most of the burden of daily household chores, must travel farther and work harder to collect water - often resorting to water from polluted streams and rivers.
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Health advice hotline - Feb.2001
     Toronto-area residents can now let their fingers do the walking for health care advice. Telehealth Ontario system offers 24-hour, seven day a week advice.
   Callers in the 416 and 905 area codes can talk to one of 144 registered nurses. They can ask health questions or describe symptoms and receive advice -- free and confidential.
   The service is provided by a private company at a cost of $45 million a year.  The number is 1-866-797-0000.
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Could a mass murderer practice medicine in Canada?
By Stephen Salaff
   Could a Harold Shipman practice medicine unrecognized at a private office, clinic or hospital in Canada?
-  read the full article
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Mad Cow Disease Threatens Canada - Jan 25.2001
   The federal government is studying the possibility that mad cow disease could exist in beef by-products that are used in vaccines and cosmetics.
   Hundreds of products contain ingredients made from bovine by-products, including some common childhood vaccines such as tetanus, polio and diphtheria. Health Canada says is currently conducting risk assessments on vaccines. It says there is no evidence the risk exists, but it also says it can't be ruled out.
   Cosmetics are also an area of concern – especially expensive anti-aging creams imported from Europe. Many contain lightly-processed bovine brain and nerve tissue. Health Canada says it's considering import restrictions on any products that contain raw biological tissue.
   At least 80 people in Britain and France have died from mad cow disease. Governments around the world have blocked the trade of infected animals and meat.
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Global Warming out of control - Jan.25.2001
   The planet is moving toward a frightening new climate era that, if unstopped, could be as catastrophic as the last Ice Age.
   Hundreds of the world's top scientists at a key meeting in Shanghai said that average temperatures in at least the Northern Hemisphere are rising more resolutely than predicted just five years ago.
   A report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that the average temperature could rise between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees over the next 100 years. It will mean that the Earth will be in the throes of the scale of climate change that prompted the Ice Age 20,000 years ago.
   The observed warming of the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gases. That means humans who produce greenhouse gases from such activities as burning petroleum bear most, if not all, the responsibility for altering the climate.
   We have the potential to reverse the warming trend by using alternate power sources and less energy.
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Harris' New Water Privatization Plan a Recipe for Disaster - Jan.25.2001
   The Harris government is seriously considering privatizing all of the province's water and sewer systems. Harris told reporters that SuperBuild Corp is entertaining suggestions ranging from buying existing facilities to building its own.
   Critics say that given the tragedy in Walkerton and the criticism surrounding the lack of public oversight, it would be even worse to  have for-profit companies operating water and sewage treatment plants.
   "It is clear now the master plan of the right-wing ideologues in the Premier's office is to turn this potentially lucrative business over to their friends in the private sector."
- Liberal MPP Jim Bradley
   Ontario has seen the tragic consequences of closing down the environment ministry's water testing laboratories and turning the business over to the private sector, Bradley added. It has been the pattern of the Harris government of discrediting public institutions and services and hoping the electorate will accept radical change as a solution by creating the impression there is a crisis.''
   Water privatization has led to disaster, poisoning, death and water shortages in other nations.
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Province Blew it in Walkerton
(Stan Koebel not all to blame, McQuigge says - Jan.10.2001)

Walkerton: Dr. Murray McQuigge admits he went too far in pinning the blame for seven deaths on the former manager of Walkerton's public utilities commission.

   Dr. McQuigge also told the inquiry Tuesday that a water-quality official within Ontario's Environment Ministry had told him that he was being asked by senior officials to deliberately deceive the public about water-quality matters.

   McQuigge says he was puzzled when Mayor Thomson didn't go public and reveal all that he knew about the crisis as townspeople began to fall ill in droves. McQuigge decided to sound the alarm because the health unit's credibility was being called into question.
   Mr. McQuigge also told the inquiry that government cutbacks under the provincial Tories played a role in the crisis. And he criticized the government for shutting its own water-testing labs in 1996.

   "I do believe that one place government should be in business is in the protection of the health of the public. I do think that public-health labs should be doing the testing. Not private labs whose incentive is profit, not necessarily the protection of the public."
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Harris Fails in Polls on Healthcare, Disabilities, Environment - Jan.2001

    75 per cent of Ontario residents feel the provincial government has failed badly in protecting the environment, a public opinion poll conducted for the government shows.
   The poll, conducted last year in the wake of the Walkerton tainted-water tragedy found fewer than 3 per cent of Ontarians surveyed agreed that the Mike Harris Conservatives had done more than enough for the environment.
Among the results of the other polls:
   The majority of Ontarians believe the province is doing a poor job of managing the health-care system.
   Most residents say teachers should volunteer, not be paid, to supervise extra-curricular activities.
   Most Ontarians believe the private sector should be forced to remove barriers to the disabled.

   The poll on the environment was conducted by the polling firm Ipsos-Reid.
   The most serious environmental problem facing Ontarians was identified as air pollution, followed by water pollution and garbage or landfill waste issues.
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NDP News report - AUDITOR'S REPORT Nov.2000 - A scathing report from the provincial auditor confirms that the Tory government continues to put lives at risk.  The auditor's annual report cited ambulances, hospital emergency services and environmental cutbacks as some of the many government failures over the past year.  For example, 60 per cent of ambulances fail to meet the desired response time set in 1996.  The auditor found that ambulances transporting gravely ill patients are lined up waiting up to 45 minutes at the hospital before they can get them through the door due to overcrowding and lack of proper funding.  On the environment, the government cut enforcement staff by 25 per cent and inspections declined by one-third over four years.  As a result of chronic environmental staff shortages, the Conservatives began to allow potential corporate polluters - even repeat offenders - to inspect themselves on a voluntarily basis.  The government also failed to collect $90 million in guarantees from these would-be polluters to assure that the cost of clean-ups wouldn't leave taxpayers on the hook. "When are you going to realize you're wrong and reverse a direction, a strategy, that is going to harm more citizens in Ontario? That's what the auditor wants to know," Leader Howard Hampton queried.
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Private health care not wanted - Oct.20.2000
   A report by the Conference Board of Canada reveals that most Canadians don't want private interests taking over health care services.
   The report says health care costs are expected to double by 2020, when 31% (4.5 million) of Ontario's population will be over age 55 and in need of more medical care.
   It's clear Canadians want the universality of basic medically necessary services covered -- that is non-negotiable.  50% to 70% would not support user fees or other forms of privatization of health care.
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Ontarians with Disabilities - Phone Mike About Phony Promise  - Call Mike. That's the request from the Ontarians with Disabilities Committee.  Phone the Premier at (416) 325-1941 and ask when the Conservatives are going to finally bring in a law that guarantees access and opportunities to persons with disabilities.  The Premier promised to implement an Ontarians with Disabilities Act in 1995, but never did.
   "If everyone participates in the Call Mike campaign, we will definitely be pushing the right buttons," said NDP Health Critic Frances Lankin, who said her call took about five minutes.  "This government will have no choice but
to respond to public pressure.  We want strong legislation that demands physical accessibility and the removal of barriers to employment, education, transportation and communication faced daily by Ontario's 1.5 million-strong community of people with disabilities," she said.
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Employment Insurance for Caregivers-Sept.2000
OTTAWA - New Democrat MP Peter Stoffer has introduced a bill in the House of Commons that would provide Employment Insurance benefits to persons who care for disabled family members.
"Presently there is no recognition or allowance for individuals who care for family members", Mr. Stoffer said. "As our population ages, more and more people will require care by family caregivers. This bill will help Canadians by making the option of home care financially viable."
The bill would allow individuals who voluntarily leave employment, or lose a job because of conflicting demands between their job and care giving, up to 52 weeks of Employment Insurance benefits.
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Chretien, Premiers Reach Health Care Deal -Sept.11.2000
   The ten premiers, and the territorial leaders, have agreed to a deal with Ottawa that will restore more than
$5 billion to health care over the next five years.
   Prime Minister Jean Chretien called it a great day for all of us.
   In the agreement the federal government will increase annual transfers to health and social programs from the current $15.5 billion per year to $21 billion in 2005-2006.  There's also a $1 billion dollar medical equipment fund, an $800 million pool of money for health care reform and $500 million to improve information technology.
   Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin saved the agreement by putting forward a non-derogation clause that says nothing in the agreement will affect provincial jurisdiction over health care.
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PM Blasts Day's Health Plans - Sept.10.2000
   Prime Minister Jean Chrétien has attacked Stockwell Day for an Alliance Party proposal that would eliminate the federal government's unilateral ability to penalize provinces for violating the Canada Health Care Act.
   "This means clearly that there will be no medicare any more," Mr. Chrétien told reporters yesterday. "He does not want to have any possibility for the national government to force the provinces to respect these five conditions of medicare that every one agrees so strongly in Canada."
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NDP plugs home care, pharmacare - Sep.2000
Ottawa -- NDP Leader Alexa McDonough says a federal-provincial agreement to issue health-care report cards done by independent experts is a fine idea, but falls far short of anything resembling a solid plan to rejuvenate health services in Canada.
In addition to restoring previous levels of health-care funding to the provinces, her $10-billion-a-year strategy would also introduce new national programs for pharmacare and home care.
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NDP Demands Appeal of WTO Drug Ruling -Sep.9.2000
WINNIPEG - NDP health critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis has called on the federal government to appeal the World Trade Organization decision delaying access to generic drugs.
She said Canada should do everything possible to make sure Canadians have access to reasonably priced pharmaceuticals. The federal government's decision to repeal its own regulations rather than appeal the WTO ruling will delay access to generic drugs and their much needed cost savings.
"This government has signaled to international pharmaceutical companies that it's open season in Canada," Ms. Wasylycia-Leis said. "The Canadian drug industry has been deregulated to the point that increasing drug costs are now threatening the very survival of medicare."
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Harris Wastes $300,000 more in Public Money on ads - Aug.28.2000
   Mike Harris' advertising blitz against Ottawa is on again with a $300,000 radio commercial that demands more federal money for health care.
   To date, Ontario has spent $5.3 million on an ad campaign that includes ads on television, newspapers and now radio.
   Perhaps Harris just can't understand that public dollars should be used wisely. Why doesn't he just phone the Prime Minister to make his demands? And if he wants to advertise why doesn't he use funds from the huge surplus in funds the Tory Party has raised for itself?
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Canada Poisoning its Children - Aug.27.2000
   Dr. Graham Chance, chairman of an advisory group which oversaw the study, The Health of Canada's Children says Canada's children have become living laboratories and are showing alarming symptoms of environmental poisoning.
   A child's daily exposure to toxic chemicals was the main concern outlined in the 325-page report released last week by the Canadian Institute of Child Health. Canada is now the second highest producer of hazardous waste in the world behind the U.S. High levels of lead, PCBs, pesticides, moulds, methylmercury, dust mites, pollutants from agricultural and industrial sources all seep into the environment and interfere with a child's development and growth process.
   Children more susceptible and at higher risk to volatile substances because they walk closer to the ground, spend more time in the yard, and eat and drink more pound for pound compared to adults. The exposure is linked to a 25% increase in childhood cancers in the last 25 years; a four-fold increase of asthma in the last 20 years; an increase in allergies, hyperactive disorders, brain dysfunction, learning disabilities and weakened immune systems.
    Dr. Trevor Hancock, chairman of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, says bluntly that children are victims of environmental abuse.
    The medical authority suggested policy makers establish a federal office on children's health and a national research centre of excellence on health and the environment. All regulations that protect children's health must be renewed.
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Genomics make Universal Healthcare the Only Option - Aug.25.2000
(facts pose serious questions on the moral direction of government and media in Canada)

   Last week at an industry conference held in Boston, senior executives from several of the world's leading genomics concerns agreed that genomics, with its promise of being able to show who will be predisposed to what disease, will eventually give rise to universal healthcare in the United States.
   Craig Venter, uber-geneticist of human genome renown said that universal healthcare will come about because the defects in our genomes will make us all uninsurable.
   The writing is on the wall. Genetic testing and genomic analysis will obviously turn the private payer system on its head, making it virtually impossible to run profitably without intense public outcry. Actuarial tables will be turned to salt. The definition of "preexisting illness'' will become hopelessly skewed. Those denied coverage because they carry, say, a breast cancer or Type II diabetes gene will invariably unite to lodge massive lawsuits against insurers. Eventually, public outcry will force Congress to pass such restrictive legislation that it will become impossible for health insurers to fulfill their primary corporate mission: to turn a profit.
   The only option is Medicare. It is undoubtedly the way of the future. And not so long ago it was the way of the present in Canada.
   The new facts pose serious questions on the moral direction of government and media in Canada. Political parties and the big media are constantly pushing the idea of breaking up Medicare, cutting services and privatizing. Not only is it morally wrong, it is a completely wrong direction. Key leaders of our nation are clearly becoming blinded and if they are not shown the light they will destroy Medicare and leave us will nothing but illness and disease as its replacement.
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NDP says - SAVINGS PLANS FOR HEALTH CARE A NON-STARTER -Aug.2000
OTTAWA - A proposal that Canadians should be required to set up and contribute to their own registered savings plans to cover their health care costs put forward at this week's Canadian Medical Association convention in Saskatoon is a complete non-starter, New Democrat MP John Solomon said Tuesday.
   "In effect they want every Canadian to set up their own health insurance plans to cover basic medical costs," Mr. Solomon said. "Creating 30 million individual insurance plans, and dismantling the public one we've had for the last 30 years is a recipe for administrative disaster. It would mean law-of-the-jungle access to essential medical services, and undermine any progress we've made towards preventive medicine in this country."
He pointed out barely 40 percent of Canadians is currently able to afford to make RRSP contributions.
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New articles:Aug.2000