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From: jimomura@lsuc.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: Doctors' Strike
Message-ID: <1290@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Jul-86 08:57:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: lsuc.1290
Posted: Tue Jul 15 08:57:02 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Jul-86 09:37:37 EDT
References: <1253@lsuc.UUCP> <585@looking.UUCP> <288@xios.UUCP> <1936@utai.UUCP> <293@xios.UUCP>
Reply-To: jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura)
Distribution: ont
Organization: Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto
Lines: 72
Summary: Not strengthened, changed

In article <293@xios.UUCP> alex@xios.UUCP (Alex B Laney) writes:
>I HOPE EVERYONE REALIZES THIS ISSUE COULD BE DISCUSSED FOR YEARS!!

     Yes, we realize it.  Do you realize that most Netters weren't
born yesterday?

>
>All parties have been willing to discuss what the OMA says is at stake
>they work for. I don't believe that that has been compromised by Bill 94
>specifically. I would have to read the Bill. I think the issue of
>professional freedom is a bit of a smoke-screen. The system has had OHIP
>for roughly 30 years now. Some doctors have been using the legality of
>extra-billing to dodge OHIP. Doctors put up a similar stink when OHIP
>came in. The decision was made a long time ago to have public Medicare.
>If because of the Bill, then doctors will stop giving 'free' services, then
>that is a drastic reaction. I don't think doctors in the past gave 'free'
>services because they could get the cash out of someone else. They could
>have kept the extra bucks. They did the favours because they wanted to help
>the people who needed extra help. If extra-billing is the difference
>between a successful doctor and a successful doctor who pitches in with
>some of his own time, then I don't see it. Are we talking about a shortage
>of doctors compared to the case load out there? Probably. The doctor who
>stops giving free services because of the Bill, is stopping either to
>publicise his opposition, or because of an emotional feeling.
>
>There are definite cases where the Bill is going to hurt patients.
>The Kingston cancer clinic, for example. The problem there is that
>the rate allowed by OHIP is too low.  That is acknowledged by the doctors there
>as the reason it's closing once the ban comes into effect. However, I don't
>think these examples are justification for a general strike and the
>rhetoric I have heard from doctors about how awful this bill is.
>
>If the doctors could have publicised how they are greatly hurt by this, then
>I could say yes, the OHIP rates are low, and the doctors needed to extra-bill.
>Instead I have heard that a tiny fraction of doctors extra-bill. The system
>doesn't seem far off. I think a ban on extra-billing in a public Health
>system is inevitable, but the system has to be responsive.
>
>
>P.S.
>
>    I didn't make up the part about my doctor not willing to spend any time
>with verbal consultations over the phone, as someone has said. But really the
>point was that I have found that doctors in private practice try to take the
>least time with you to solve anything. And I don't mean they are trying to be
>efficient on the side of the patient! Maybe I should find a doctor that is
>more laid-back!
>
>P.P.S.
>
>   I think it is interesting that Medicare was brought in to guarantee access
>to hospitals, and that it is in the public good. Now, when we make a move
>to strengthen Medicare, it is the wrong thing to do.
>
>-- 


     Bill 94 didn't "strengthen" Medicare as it existed in Ontario for
the past N years, it changed it fundamentally.  The initial premise
which was accepted by the people of Ontario was that extra billing
would be an integral part of our system.  It's like saying that changing
our method of government from representative multi partied democracy
to representative single partied democracy would be strengthening
our system of government.  It doesn't.  It's fundamentally a new thing.
Whether it is better or worse is a different matter.

Cheers! -- Jim O.
-- 
James Omura, Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto
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