Iggy and health reform: are you kidding?!

Michael Den Tandt (in "Ignatieff's invisibility leaves void", St. Catharines Standard, Jul.30, 2009) was writing of Ignatieff's summer hibernation, and of Iggy's lack of a so-called grand vision. Astoundingly, then, Den Tandt wrote:

"Every serious analyst of our health-care system says the present model is unsustainable, given the aging baby boomers. Where is the plan to move beyond our national theological devotion to the status quo on health care?"

Wassisdat!?

'Move health care beyond Canadians' theological devotion to the status quo'? Is Den Tandt serious?

Umm - what status-quo are we talking about here?

Specifically, is it Canada's single-payer health care monopoly status quo which Den Tandt refers to?

Who expects Iggy to flaunt health care reform when he emerges from his summer contemplative lair?? We all know the Liberal's propensity for health care duplicity! What - will Iggy demand that the Canada Health Act be abolished, and a new version written, stipulating that all the provinces not discriminate against and allow private insurers and patient payer/provider choice?

Will Iggy see that a Quebec Chaoulli-style court decision will come sooner or later to Ontario as well, and try to change the status-quo on a national basis to reflect and respond to this new reality?

Will Iggy not only repeat on a national basis what Ontario's former Liberal Health Monster, er, Minister, George Smitherman said about Ontario (that the province 'can't do it all'); but will Iggy also move forward with that recognition: that the state is not the sole answer to health care, and that, at the same time, the state cannot deem itself to monopolize the health choices of its citizens?

Will Iggy specifically point to the McGuinty Liberals' Commitment to the Future of Medicare Act as a blatant example of misguided ideological policy?

Will Iggy belatedly forgive Pierre Pettigrew, who as former Liberal federal Health Minister, once said:

“If some provinces want to experiment with the private delivery option, my view is that as long as they respect the single-payer, public-payer, we should be examining these efforts. If it doesn’t work, they’ll stop it. But if it works, we’ll all learn something.”? (Toronto Star, Apr.28, 2004)

In 2004, Pettigrew's then-astoundingly-refreshing (and rare) display of Liberal common sense, daring to propose the mildest of health-reforms, so shocked Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin and his politically-correct (or is that politically-challenged?) Liberal statist chattering-class that Pettigrew was immediately forced to recant!

No politician, including Iggy, has the balls to tackle health care reform. The status-quo monopolists continue to send Canadians to the States while they wait for the courts to decide for them.
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