Healthcare

In this piece, which has been reprinted across the country, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley shows how what Roy Romanow heard from Canadians was transformed into what Mr. Romanow wanted Canadians to say – a skilful ventriloquism act. What the Romanow Commission heard from focus groups across the country was pretty much what Canadians have been telling pollsters for the last several years. Canadians are a down-to-earth, non-ideological, practical people. They're interested in what works and they're interested in real solutions to the growing evidence of the accelerating decline of the health care system. But that didn't square with the views of Mr. Romanow and his merry band. So they marched their focus groups into a room, and presented them with "expert opinion" to show these poor benighted citizens why the things they were willing to try were bad. Unsurprisingly, on being presented with what seemed to be an objective and authoritative debunking of ideas that had seemed practica

The day after the release of AIMS latest study, "Definitely Not the Romanow Report: Achieving Equity, Sustainability, Accountability and Consumer Empowerment in Canadian Health Care”, the ideas put forward received national attention as newspapers across the country focused on the innovative alternatives being put forward. In this article, Steve Macleod from the Canadian Press states that, “the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, in a scathing report released Tuesday, criticizes Romanow for his role as head of a royal commission on the future of health care. Brian Crowley, the report's co-author, accuses Romanow of hearing only what he wants to hear, and ruling out many of the innovations that have vaulted several Western countries ahead of Canada in terms of health-care delivery.”

AIMS latest study, Definitely Not the Romanow Report: Achieving Equity, Sustainability, Accountability and Consumer Empowerment in Canadian Health Care, released today, was reported on the front page of the National Post this morning. The study, an alternative to this Thursday's widely anticipated Romanow report, concludes that Canadians must take more responsibility for their health and pay more for services in a smaller, more competitive public system. With the national debate increasingly focused on only two alternatives: increased taxes or reduced services, Definitely Not the Romanow Report will supply a broader and more innovative list of solutions to widen the debate and encourage thoughtful reform. To see the national attention being paid to the ideas being brought forward by AIMS, read the full piece by Tom Arnold.

The head of Canada's health care commission, Roy Romanow, has made it clear that his forthcoming report will continue to ensure that "two-tier" health care is forbidden in Canada. In this piece from the National Post, AIMS’ President Brian Lee Crowley explains that many of Mr. Romanow's concerns are ideological, and have little to do with the quality of care delivered within the public system. “Romanow clings to a system that outlaws private spending on publicly insured services, in the mistaken belief that parallel systems rob the public system of resources, while both objective and subjective international rankings show that multiple tiers of access are fully compatible with high quality public systems, high levels of care overall, high levels of patient satisfaction and public health outcomes as good or better than Canada's," says Crowley. Publication: NP, November 25 2002

In his newest role as a contributing author to La Presse, a French language daily in Montreal, AIMS’ President Brian Lee Crowley has started off with this article looking at why Roy Romanow, the head of the federal commission into the future of health care is part of the problem, not the solution. Administrators of our health-care system suffer no direct consequences from poor customer service. They aren't even answerable to a demanding regulatory agency, other than the vague federal power to withhold funding for violations of the equally vague principles of the Canada Health Act. Other than notoriously ineffective channels of complaints to politicians, letters to the editor, and calls to open-line shows, dissatisfied consumers have little power to influence the system. This translates into excessive waiting times, error tolerance, and the growing use of health services outside "official" channels. Says Crowley, “Roy Romanow thinks this unresponsive monopoly is just fine and onl