Canadian High Court Shrugs

Given the rulings of the past week by both bodies I have to ask, "Can we trade Supreme Courts with Canada?" As a free American, I have been blissfully ignorant to the fact that private medical insurance and private health care service in Canada is, against the law! Canada's Supreme Court acted today to end this travesty. Quebec Private Health Insurance Ban Nixed.

"The justices have taken a year to rule on a case that began in 1997, when George Zeliotis, an elderly Montreal men, tried to pay for hip replacement surgery rather than wait nearly a year for treatment at a public hospital."

Where lower courts have ruled that "the collective right to a publicly funded system is more important than individual rights" the high court took the opposite view. "In its ruling Thursday, the court said the provincial policy violates the Quebec charter. But they split 3 - 3 on whether it violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, meaning there is no immediate impact on the Canadian health-care system as a whole."

But the statists in Quebec City aren't taking this lying down. "Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Benoit Pelletier says Quebec could use the notwithstanding clause of the Quebec Charter of Rights to override the Supreme Court's decision on access to private health care."

What do Canada's comrades and freemen think of the ruling? Here are some examples: (All emphasis mine.)

First, the comrades:

We need to look at values here. The constantly expanding gap between rich and poor is sending us backward to the dark days before medicare. The mean world of conservatism descends.

Those who subscribe to social darwinism are having their way, at the expense of the less fortunate. If you've got the money, then you must deserve the best! That's what they think. Those who can't compete get what's left. It's a sad sad commentary on the evolution of humanity.
Lee Carruthers | Carmacks, Yukon

Why should someone receive medical care immediately just because one can afford to pay while another gets shoved to the back merely because they cannot. It should be decided upon one's immediate medical need not the almighty buck.
Bob Beer | Iona Station, Ontario

The people that are applauding this decision have one thing in common - GREED.
Mike D Potter

It is a self-evident truth that insurance companies sell policies with the premiums geared to risk vis a vis the bottom line profit picture.
Adrian Davies | Toronto

Yo, Adrian. Why is it not self-evident to you that Canada's service-on-demand (when we get to you) medical system is a dismal failure precisely because there is no bottom-line profit picture?

How any Canadian could actually desire paying even more for private insurance, rather than developing an effective public system, boggles my mind, leading me to conclude that we are becoming an ever-more individualistic and self-interested society. How un-Canadian.
Matt Vidler | Peteborough, Ontario

If this is the definition of "un-Canadian" count me in! But the next one is my favorite:

The concept that the right to buy private health insurance to pay for private health-care is universal is purely hypothetical. If you don't have the financial resources, you don't have the right to buy private health-care regardless of what the law says.

Therefore, this is not a universal right;but rather, it is a privilege of the rich. There is absolutely no question that this ruling is a victory for health-care as a commodity rather than health-care as a right.

Once health-care becomes a commodity, it is available only to those who can afford it. How is that a "universal" right? Anyone who believes that this will not reduce access within the public system is dreaming in techni-colour. The Supreme Court should be ashamed of its disgraceful action.
Greg Gowing | Ontario

Greg clearly confuses "right" with "demand."

And, the freemen:

Canadians are now well on the way to being freed from one of the most restrictive and interventionist programs ever devised in a so-called democracy. The socialist dogma of our government has been exposed for the unworkable sham that it is. Finally, the Supremes get one right!
Richard Kneller | Hamilton, Ontario

Our "right to health care", and the way it is implemented in legislation has actually had the effect of removing it's self as a right by creating such obscene waiting lists.
Steve Smith | Ottawa

Why are people so jealous of others who can afford things they cannot?
Jason Blue | Olds, Alberta

Why indeed, Jason. Why indeed.

Economics and Markets Posted by JohnGalt at June 9, 2005 3:06 PM