OTTAWA - Health Minister Tony Clement has curtly rebuffed the Canadian Medical Association's call for greater privatization of medicare, saying the government will not allow doctors to work simultaneously in both the public and private health systems.
"Any collection of doctors are entitled to their opinion and there are many things we agree with them on, but on the issue of physicians having a dual practice or two-tier system, we're not going down that road," said Clement in an interview Wednesday.
He noted that Prime Minister Stephen Harper last year rejected the same idea in a letter to the government of Alberta.
"The position of the government has not changed. We still agree with and wish to abide by the Canada Health Act. I'm expecting all provinces will abide by the same action."
In a policy paper released Monday, the CMA said a greater role for private-sector doctors would ease wait times in the public system.
Clement said he is not surprised that the issue keeps coming up, but the government has no intention of changing tack. Doctors can opt out of the public system if they wish but they can't work both systems at once, he said.
The federal government can withhold transfer payments that violate the Canada Health Act.
"This issue comes up periodically because of various reports by the great and the good, and the CMA pretty well on a regular basis raises this issue," said Clement.
"It's quite lucrative for physicians to be partially in and partially out because they can in effect top up a guaranteed income with a private income as well.
"When it comes to dual practice . . . that's not the path we're choosing to take."
Clement was responding to a letter to Harper from Doris Grinspun, executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, calling on the government to reject the CMA proposal.
"A parallel private system siphons health care professionals and drains resources out of the public system," said the letter. "As a result, countries with parallel private hospitals have larger and longer wait lists in their public hospitals than countries with a single-payer system."
Told of Clement's remarks, Grinspun welcomed his swift response. She called on him to send the CMA a letter stating his views in writing.
"I don't recall a previous occasion where the CMA called so blatantly and so openly asked for basically reinterpreting the Canada Health Act, allowing physicians to work with one foot in the public sector and one foot in the private sector which is basically a money grab."
Grinspun said she wished Clement would be equally forceful in responding to private clinics which she said continue to proliferate in Canada, offering medically necessary services such as diagnostic imaging.
She said there has been great improvement in wait times over the past four or five years, and the CMA is "taking its last kick at the can."
No response could be obtained from the CMA late Wednesday.
