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Layton would halt funding for private clinics
Canadian Press
VANCOUVER — NDP leader Jack Layton says his party will focus on stopping the flow of public money into private health care, not shutting down private clinics.
Campaigning in Vancouver's Chinatown Sunday, Layton said private clinics are a "fundamental aspect" of the health-care system founded by former Saskatchewan premier Tommy Douglas and not much can be done about them. Layton says he wants to stop tax dollars from boosting the bottom lines of big health-care corporations.
"Our focus is to keep public health-care dollars going to public and non-profit facilities," Layton told reporters. "What happens with people in the privacy of their own relationship financially, that's up to them."
When pressed on the issue, he said private clinics have been around from the beginning.
"There is nothing new about that," he said. "Our focus is on what happens to the public tax dollars that we all contribute to help take care of Canadians.
"We want them going to non-profit and public facilities and services."
The position seems to contradict what the party said all week about stopping the privatization of health care.
Party staff said the theory is that there would be no market for private care if a public health system was funded properly.
Layton was trying to take advantage of a slow day on the part of the other leaders to frame the debate around the health-care issue. But he ended up leaving reporters following his campaign stumped about his position.
In his speech to a rally of 300 supporters, he suggested that the election is only a two-party race on the topic because both the Liberals and Conservatives support what he calls the Americanization of health care.
He tried to drag Michael Kirby into the debate, saying the rival parties espouse the views of the Liberal senator, while the NDP fight for the values of their founding leader, Douglas.
Kirby has said publicly that he backs a public health system, but favours "getting as much competition into the delivery sector as you can."
Layton called Kirby the Wizard of Oz of health-care privatization.
"When you pull that curtain back, there Senator Kirby is prominent in the health policies of both the Conservative and the Liberal parties," Layton said.
Liberal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh couldn't really clear up the issue of whether health clinics that operate solely on private funds could be stopped. Layton suggests they can't.
"The mode of delivery is determined by the provinces," Dosanjh told reporters in a conference call.
"Our preference is a public delivery, but that is determined by the provinces and if they determine that these clinics are to go on then they have to live within the confines of the (Canada Health) Act."
Instead, Dosanjh chose to attack Layton over his charge that the Liberals favour privatization.
"Mr. Layton says that he supports public delivery. We've been saying for a year and a half, ever since I have been a minister of health, our preference is public delivery," he said.
Canadian Press
VANCOUVER — NDP leader Jack Layton says his party will focus on stopping the flow of public money into private health care, not shutting down private clinics.
Campaigning in Vancouver's Chinatown Sunday, Layton said private clinics are a "fundamental aspect" of the health-care system founded by former Saskatchewan premier Tommy Douglas and not much can be done about them. Layton says he wants to stop tax dollars from boosting the bottom lines of big health-care corporations.
"Our focus is to keep public health-care dollars going to public and non-profit facilities," Layton told reporters. "What happens with people in the privacy of their own relationship financially, that's up to them."
When pressed on the issue, he said private clinics have been around from the beginning.
"There is nothing new about that," he said. "Our focus is on what happens to the public tax dollars that we all contribute to help take care of Canadians.
"We want them going to non-profit and public facilities and services."
The position seems to contradict what the party said all week about stopping the privatization of health care.
Party staff said the theory is that there would be no market for private care if a public health system was funded properly.
Layton was trying to take advantage of a slow day on the part of the other leaders to frame the debate around the health-care issue. But he ended up leaving reporters following his campaign stumped about his position.
In his speech to a rally of 300 supporters, he suggested that the election is only a two-party race on the topic because both the Liberals and Conservatives support what he calls the Americanization of health care.
He tried to drag Michael Kirby into the debate, saying the rival parties espouse the views of the Liberal senator, while the NDP fight for the values of their founding leader, Douglas.
Kirby has said publicly that he backs a public health system, but favours "getting as much competition into the delivery sector as you can."
Layton called Kirby the Wizard of Oz of health-care privatization.
"When you pull that curtain back, there Senator Kirby is prominent in the health policies of both the Conservative and the Liberal parties," Layton said.
Liberal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh couldn't really clear up the issue of whether health clinics that operate solely on private funds could be stopped. Layton suggests they can't.
"The mode of delivery is determined by the provinces," Dosanjh told reporters in a conference call.
"Our preference is a public delivery, but that is determined by the provinces and if they determine that these clinics are to go on then they have to live within the confines of the (Canada Health) Act."
Instead, Dosanjh chose to attack Layton over his charge that the Liberals favour privatization.
"Mr. Layton says that he supports public delivery. We've been saying for a year and a half, ever since I have been a minister of health, our preference is public delivery," he said.