6 - North Shore News — Wednesday, April 5, 2000 VIEW POINT: Essential issue REMIER Ujjal Dosanjh deserves credit for recalling the legislature to end the school strike that left 350,000 students without classes last week. Rut the move begs the question of why any disruption to our education system was allowed to take place at all. The back-to-work legislation passed on Sunday followed failed attempts by Industrial Inquiry Commissioners Vince Ready and Irene Holden to resolve the issues.involved in the dis- ‘pute between 44 B.C. school boards and the Canadian Union of Public -- Employees (CUPE). The commission- - €rs were appointed on March 28 and given an April 1 deadline to find a solu- tion to the impasse. But, with hundreds of unresolved issues involved, the time- : line proved far too, short. The NDP ent knew ‘well in. advance. of .. the strike the stagnant state of negotia- : with the approach. of the “Fujian Tourist Season” cou- pled with the silence of Canada’s immigration minister —" after ‘all’ she. vowed to halt the influx of phony refugees — -- your: ‘readers. may: find the words ‘of a: “top communist Chinese official of interest.. =,While he: spoke to the ‘Australians’ com laint, it will be noted that ‘Canada got a not very honourable mention. ‘ate.from the prestigious newspaper Tie Australian .what must be the-most humiliating “governments of both Australia and immigration. eb. 4,.2000): gi true position on ille tions. Yet the industrial inquiry com- missioners were only appointed after the strike began. And the main govern- ment negotiator in the dispute left on vacation a week before CUPE’s strike deadline. So there appeared to be little real effort on the government’s part to avoid what resulted in another inter- ruption in the education of the province’s children. B.C. students already attend far too few days of school during a given year. ‘Summer, spring, Christmas and Easter breaks coupled with teacher pro- fessional days leave E.C. children with less than 195 school days per year. To allow dysfunctional labour rela- tions in this province to further disrupt that education is unacceptable. Education is an essential service. It’s time the provincial g ~vernment official- ly recognized that reality. TODAY, medicare on life sup- port is the first concern of most Canadians. Yet as baffling as its © ptoms may seen, the funda- mentals for a last- ing cure are rela- tively simple. Meanwhile, Health Minister Allan Rock’s °, meeting last week with his provincial counter- — parts offered the patient pe hope of carly recov- ada. It is the’ tru “A's ‘senior: Chinese . official has blamed _ Australia's lax - ¢ provinces demanded an immedi- ate “extra Se. 2 billion from Ottawa. Rock indicated “some” extra funds, but only if ~ the provinces first figured how to fix the system. A further May meeting and, later in the year, a first ministers’ cemference are planned. The list of medicare’s problems is > daunting: Fee:for-service payment of doc- . tors, rewarding those who crami the maxi- ~ mum number of patients’ visits; however :. brief, into each day and thus encourage cinies to cl Dp down on the smug: “The applications of some lum are merely pretexts for staying there.” ; ever com rtable. Mr. Guo Xiqin has : uatries a service by pointing’ out what many.” ‘ordinary people, know to be true, . ely, the old saying applies to our politicians: ne so blind as he who will hot see, nor so 30 deaf : widespread over-use of the system (“Its all free, isn’t it?”). -Overcrowded emergency departments « because doctors’ offices are closed evenings and weekends. Insufficieit use of nurse practiticners for simpler médical procedurss Anadequate home care sup- . Porkdd gallop ing multi-million-dollar , technology (often over-used simply |. because it’s there), an aging population,. : acute-care beds cl fa Hoa with long-term- care patients and a bloated bureaucracy _ which regards saving taxpayers’ dollars a3. an oxymoron. Smal wonder. _ ~ despite independent suburban newspaper ind "under Schade 111, Paragraph 111 of tne’ Excise Tax Act is published each Wednesttay, Friday and Sunday by HCN Publications Company and distributed to every dear on the (dad Sales Product Ag.wement No. 0067238. Mailing rates available on request. canted jy: ubitsh by HCE. Pablicatiea: Compan zy BN Nd shot adesd vasnca tates ext $200 co $300. he provinces spending one-third or more of their budgets on health care — that the lineups for urgent treatment lengthen | weekly, What’s wrong is the complete absence from medicare of the normal market forces that have - brought unparalleled prosperity to North America — buyer pay- ing seller directly and competition forcing the latter to charge no more than the ¢ will bear. Neither doctors, patients, hospitals nor medicare? s vast bureaucracy have the ~ slightest incentive to introduce such bot- tom-line efficiencies. The answer is NOT — as some read- ers inay doubtless be assuming by now —~ — “American-type” user-pay medicine. The answer is to channel funding to doctors and other providers VIA the patients themselves, with incentives for them to spend it responsibly. The mechanics are straightforwar Every Canadian would be given an annual medicare savings account, the “actual amount based on age and medical’ history. £f oyerspent, the patient would be on the hook for upto ‘perhaps the’ to take over all fur- us ensuring nobody would kick in ag ther expenses, ’ could ever be wiped out financially by urgent major surgery or prolonged dis- : ; But any year when the account was. underspent, government and patient” .., would split the surplus — a strong incen- . tive for the latter to closely monitor the use of his or her health care “dollars.” er that, medicare. -- an fase TES Comat -pat . igen . x Dat Bion fren ae. OR 221 pores US. . Those “dollars” would not, of course, : be real money but simply vouchers cas able with the government by any publicl funded health care provider. ot The latter could also inclvde pi vately ” operated facilities regulated to provide, a minimum, the same service as the pub: licly operated ones at the same cost or less, thus introducing die’ efiiciency-** boosting element of competition. _ . If the patient wished to buy any extra services offered by a private. facility, tha would be itis or her business. ~ apt patient accounta ty ed competition are the two vital the: needed for publich funded health c are recovery. Without them,, the prognosis both for medicare and its ever longer. or ist of waiting sufferers.” 7 “ April 6, to North Van’ ; More the same Friday, Ap former Ambleside Inn’. gracious h hi Martha Brueckel : dm: returns of Saturday _ Master butcher Peter ‘LETTERS oO THE EDITOR ” Letters, must include your name, ~ full aiddress & telephone number... x > 3944 mat tnshan@nsnews.com rome 139; rae OO