July

9 June 2005

At around 6:45 a.m. here on the Pacific Coast, the Supreme Court of Canada proclaimed that a majority of the justices (after 366 days of deliberations) agreed with appellants, Dr Chaoulli and Mr Zeliotis, that the Government of Quebec was acting contrary to the Quebec charter of rights by denying its citizens the right to purchase private insurance to pay for medical care already provided in the publicly funded system.

Chronic kidney disease is becoming more common in Canada and worldwide, along with cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

The train is coming down the tracks. We know this because we can hear the whistle in the distance. What we don’t know is how fast it is moving, how big it is, and exactly when it will arrive in the station. More importantly, we have not yet been issued a ticket to get on board, and without the right key to the stateroom and the right luggage to carry our necessities, the journey ahead is going to be difficult and complex.

My hope is that the intense and irrational debate and rhetoric that has prevented objective discussion of Canadian medicare will be resolved by the dispassionate and logical intervention of the highest court in the land.”

Recently I spent 15 minutes on the telephone answering a survey from the BCMA. At the end I realized not one question addressed was what I consider the single most important issue within our association: income disparity.