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Canadian Actor & Writer Mary Walsh Joins National Campaign Promoting Medicare |
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Written by Wire
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Wednesday, 18 October 2006 |
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Mary Walsh has joined a new national campaign to encourage Canadians to press politicians to defend and strengthen our public health care system.
"My US colleagues have nothing but horror stories about the system there, so I'm joining with other Maritimers and Canadians to stand up and say, 'Medicare Works - keep it public, keep it fair'," Walsh said.
The campaign, "Medicare Works", holds its first community "Town Hall" meeting tomorrow night, Thursday, October 19, 7:30 PM at The Fairmont Newfoundland hotel in Cavendish Square, St. John's. There are 32 such Town Halls being held in communities across the country, including Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, PEI and New Brunswick. Doctors, health experts and social activists will expose the commercial forces behind the renewed attack on the public system and discuss how it can be strengthened through public sector innovation.
"Public health care has worked for myself, my family and my friends," Walsh said. "When my family needs quality health care services, they get them, with caring and compassion." Walsh says the campaign to undermine the public system is off the mark. She bristles at the way governments are giving in to commercial forces that want to privatize the system for their own profit.
The range of public sector innovations that can strengthen the public system is wide and diverse, said Kathleen Connors, of the Canadian Health Coalition. "Let's extend Medicare to include prescription drugs, hire more health care professionals and manage wait lists better for faster service," Connors said. "And let's remove the real bottlenecks like by stopping doctors from working in both the public system and private systems."
Connors was hopeful the Town Hall meetings will galvanize communities to pressure their politicians on health care, especially leading up to the next federal election.
"The public system is under renewed attack, with the federal government not enforcing the Canada Health Act, provinces aggressively pushing for-profit health services and profit-minded entrepreneurs trying to cash in," Connors said. "Now is the time to tell our politicians that Medicare works, and we should keep it public and keep it fair." |
