THE RECORD
July 04, 2001

Fiat Lux

by Ed Deak

The question of rising health costs and the virtually collapsing system, starved for funds, is on the minds of most people, especially old fogies like us. Not that we'd use the system very much, as we haven't been to a doctor for years and don't take any medications. Still, one never knows when the need may arise and then it wouldn't be a happy prospect to be locked out of the hospital for the lack of a bed, or professional care.

If our governments have their way we'll soon be facing the spector of privatized health care. The federal Liberals are busy negotiating the GATS treaty in Geneva, while lying their teeth out trying to cover up their intention of bringing in multinational health providers. To cut costs, of course. This is par for the course, as they've been selling out the people of Canada for many years by cutting back on health payments to the provinces and engaging in a variety of treaties to eliminate the powers of elected governments on the altar of so called free trade.

I'm not one of those people who dreams and talks about the "good old days" as no period in history had any. People always had their problems and many believed that the past was better, but most of the time it was just a wishful dream. However, there are things we older people have seen and experienced that should make us think about the way the world is heading. Health care and conditions are definitely among them.

As I grew up in Eastern Europe I have no memories of Canada prior to 1955, so I would like to ask people who grew up here to try to recollect the general standard of health in the '30s and later. Was it better, or worse? I am not talking about the wonderful medical miracles that can rebuild bodies and keep people alive long after they should have been permitted to die in peace. What I would like to know is how much of our endlessly spiraling health costs are caused by so called economic activities?

When I was a boy in an impoverished county, we had all kinds of epidemics every year and our schools were closed almost every year. I won't get into a list of them, but I even had diphtheria when I was 11 and it was only the quick actions of a doctor, they were still making house calls those days, that saved my life.

Yet, I never heard of anybody dying and in the schools I attended until 1944 I can't remember more than 2-3 deaths. We hardly ever saw doctors, and only large cities had hospitals. We couldn't afford them except in the greatest emergencies. I remember my mother sending me to the pharmacy to buy one aspirin, because that was all she could afford.

As far as today's serious illnesses are concerned, we virtually had none. In all those years I have known only one old man who died of cancer and heard of another old lady.

I grew up in a lake shore summer resort and when school ended we took our shirts off and never put them back until September. Our skin was deep brown, sometimes it peeled, but I never heard of melanoma until the last few years. Now 1.5 million North Americans are expected to come down with it every year and our radios and TV are giving daily warnings on the ultraviolet levels.

I never heard of a breast cancer until about 30 years ago. Now it kills 46,000 women in the USA every year and it is spreading among men. We had several cases even in our tiny community in the past few years and the numbers are growing daily.

The same with leukemia. Who has every heard of it not too long ago? The first time that I heard the word was almost 50 years ago when we were living in England and read it in the papers that the actor Red Skelton brought his young son over to show him the world before he died in a "rare illness of the blood called leukemia." Now we have hospital wards full of them everywhere and see those poor little kids with their bald heads dying in every community, while our TV brings daily news about the big breaks in fighting cancers.

The problem is that cancers and generally all these manmade illnesses are big money. The profits start at the oil wells, in the mines, the garbage dumps, the nuclear powers plants. With globalized and generally large production systems that separate the makers from the buyers and force long distance transports and commuting. The oil companies forced Dubya Bush to cancel the Kyoto agreement on emission reductions, as it cut into their profits. Now more people will come down with cancers. It is OK, because in many parts of the world, especially in the USA, the needs of sick people, the equipment, the hospitals, the miracle drugs etc. are all part of the Gross Domestic Product. The fewer people get sick, the lower the "growth" and the shares of the companies involved will crash.
More on this in my next column. Until then, keep out of the sun, if you ever see it in this upside down weather system we are having. We had four nights of frost just last week.

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power. FDR, 1938

Copyright (c) 2001, West's International