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Instead of embracing P3 schemes, Canada should insist on (100%) publicly- funded hospitals and healthcare. In an article entitled "'Privatization' Is the Problem, Not the Solution," the author demonstrates the wasteful squandering of public resources in the healthcare field alone:
* Ontario paid 75 percent more to for-profit labs than it had to non-profit community labs over the previous 30 years, for the same tests.
* Public-private partnerships are 83 per cent costlier to finance than public projects.
* Canadians spend roughly half of what the private U.S. system spends per person and we get better coverage and outcomes.
* Studies comparing U.S. and Canadian outcomes for heart attacks, cancer, surgical procedures and chronic conditions show that Canada does at least as well, often better.
* A recent Canadian study found that expedited knee surgery in a for-profit clinic costs $3,222 compared to $959 in a public hospital (with worse return-to-work outcomes).
We are also being exploited by the financial sector. Instead of borrowing from private international and domestic institutions, and paying compound interest on government loans, Canada should be borrowing interest-free from its publicly-owned Bank of Canada -- as it did until 1974 -- when the debt and deficit were miniscule compared to today. Murray Dobbins explains in "Liberate the Bank of Canada, Intrepid Think Tank Urges| Canadians have been fleeced for billions, but no traction in media for complex banking case," that by 2012, Canadians had paid one trillion (CAN) dollars in interest to private banks.
What additional steps can we take to de-colonize this country from its transnational colonizers?
First, we should reject the TPP agreement and any transnational agreement that is bundled with an Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clause.
Second, we should (continue to) decode and reject the lies and distortions of the criminal warmongers and the military-industrial-media complex.
Third, we need to establish an independent foreign policy that complies with the rule of international law.
Each of these steps would help us break free from the toxic shackles of globalized war and poverty that "benefits" only a miniscule oligarch class. The current neo-con misgovernance is creating and perpetuating catastrophes -- such as the 911 wars -- instead of productively addressing catastrophes -- such as catastrophic global warming. A global shift towards common sense and the common good is long overdue.
Appeared at American Herald Tribune
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