News Releases:

June 9, 2005
Supreme Court of Canada Abolishes "Prohibition" of Healthcare
Vancouver, BC,


The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that government imposed restrictions on private healthcare services and insurance violate the Quebec Charter and have struck down the previous Quebec courts' rulings that forced citizens to remain passively on government created wait lists. In rejecting laws that have forced Canadians to wait for medical services, they have affirmed a citizen's right to protect their own health care.

In reaching their decision, they rejected arguments that the pain and suffering of patients waiting for necessary health care is a justifiable price to pay in order to uphold a state controlled monopoly. Currently, 2 million Canadians deteriorate as they wait up to 2 years for joint replacement and back surgery, many months for urgent heart and cancer treatment and line up in emergency departments for up to 10 hours, sometimes being sent home to die. Our system is ranked 30th in the world by the World Health Organization, but is one of the highest in cost of countries with universal coverage. The Canadian system has been based on the principle of "prohibition" - make the service unavailable and enact laws to prohibit alternative access. With this decision, Quebec and the rest of Canada will now move toward a European style system, where public and private health care coexist to their mutual benefit and wait lists are virtually non existent in both systems.

The decision is likely to result in a major boost to economic activity in Canada. Between 10 and 40 billion dollars of non tax revenues may be invested into the economy each year, as new health facilities' construction, new health insurance businesses, new health technologies and related jobs in these fields are introduced or created. The greatest beneficiaries will be Canadian patients. As in European models such as exist in France, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland, we shall see a progressive elimination of wait lists and the pain and suffering that Canadians currently experience.

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