Hmm. Controversies Abound!

(I'm in a somewhat Blah mood after finding that my camera is gone today -- presumably stolen from me on the bus last night, as I remember having it at the bus station and not since, so... Bleh. I ain't got fuck all to say about that to you people. I'm waiting to see what happens with insurance and lost and found and such. Just a quick thought: )

There's a new health facility opened here in BC after having tried once before to open but then being closed down by the government. They offer private care for cash, something that sticks a mighty thorn in the side of most Canadians who believe in the universal health care that our country revolutionized some decades ago.

I'm torn. One, I think the government needs to cough up much more money much sooner for medical care than it has been, and it's something that needs to happen urgently as the level of care available has been steadily declining for the last decade.

Two, I lost my mother to cancer because clinics and doctors kept shutting down to have protest days against the NDP government in '98. Had she been in to the doctor a couple months earlier, been booked into surgery sooner, she might well still be alive. Am I angry? You're fucking right I am. I still blame the NDP government for my mother's death, and the countless crass doctors who thought the only way to protest was to deny the people that pay their salaries the care they need and deserve.

So, here's my thinking -- if there are people who can afford to pay for their medical care and they want to get the fuck out of the queue and leave the provincial care system for those who have no such options, then why the hell not let them? If we do not fund those private clinics, give them none of our government money, and they do their business according to our laws, then sure. Let's do that. Let's get the rich folk out of the line-ups so the poor folk can get served that much faster.

Isn't it possible to have our cake and eat it too in this one instance? I can't help but believe it is possible. What can I say?