OTTAWA – Senators looking at the future of Canada’s health care system are either naïve or dishonest when they say it doesn’t matter who owns the institutions that delivery health services.

That was the reaction from many Medicare advocates following the release on October 25 of a report from a special Senate committee on health care.

The committee, chaired by controversial Senator Michael Kirby, put forward many laudable recommendations. For example, they called for $5 billion in extra funding from the federal government. They also suggested that the Medicare umbrella should be expanded to cover things such as homecare and, to a lesser extent, prescription drugs.

But the Kirby commission earned the wrath of Medicare advocates when it said the delivery of services should be "open to competition" – including competition from profit-seeking corporations.

"That where the Senate committee is opening a dangerous door. There is clear evidence that privatization kills," says Judy Darcy, National President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. "Independent medical research demonstrates that for-profit ownership of health care services results in a great number of deaths."

Darcy cited a study published this past spring in the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association in which a team of researchers at McMaster University showed that mortality rates are higher in American for-profit hospitals.

Christine Burdett, chairperson of the Friends of Medicare, said that Kirby’s report also ignores the risks posed by the North American Free Trade Agreement that further privatization of our health care system would open the doors to a wholesale invasion of our health care system by American HMOs.

"We know that under trade agreements, if we expand for-profit medicine we’ll see precious health care dollars sucked out of the country into the pockets of big business," said Burdett. "Corporations and competition are a recipe for dismantling our public health care system, not rebuilding it."

While the Senate report rejects some of the more hare-brained and dangerous notions that were promoted in its earlier reports – including medical savings accounts and increased user fees – Darcy and Burdett say it continues to recommend actions that would erode rather than strengthen our public health care system.

"Our health care system needs urgent, even radical reform, but it’s not in the direction on increased privatization," said Darcy. "The way to improve access, reduce waiting lists and increase efficiency is to strengthen and expand our public health care system."

Burdett said she was disappointed by the report’s focus on commercialization, but not altogether surprised.