N. Island Hardline MDs, gov’t underfunding

on ‘Amox' | threaten future of medicare in B.C.

CAMPBELL RIVER — - Continued from page 1

Weldwood of Canada’s pro-

Ina significant move, Dr. Man- WG X X fay
posed open pit coal mine in] <evilleurged doctors to take job ac- \“ W \ oO“
Campbell River’s environment- |. tion by closing their offices for two \ \ - ;
ally-sensitive Quinsam water-| days to attend the annual meeting \
shed area has reached a critical | , — knowing full well that it would _..PHYSICIAN
Stage amid mounting opposi- be his supporters in the main who i ‘
tion to the project. would take such action. HEAL THYSELF.
stage 2 submission to extract} launched a major court challenge bs
low gradecoalclosetothe Quin-{ [© Bill 16, the legislation which WS

would outlaw extra-billing.

At the same time, the Social
Credit government, itself a main
architect of the current crisis, has
dragged its feet on a ban on extra-
billing. The proposed legislation
has remained shelved although
Bennett did state this week that he
would proceed with it.

Instead, the Socreds have sought

_ to use the fee dispute issue as a foil
to deflect the public criticism gen-
erated by the crisis — especially im-
portant when a crucial byelection is

sam Lake is currently before the
cabinet’s Environmental Land
Use Committee. If passed, it
will be a major setback for the
numerous local coalitions and
organizations which have vigor-
ously opposed the scheme since
it was first proposed by Weld-
wood two years ago.

Monday, NDP MLA for
North Island Colin Gabelman
told the Tribune that there were
so many holes in Weldwood’s
“‘stupid’’ proposal, that the

|
|
| ELUC and the ministers of en-} being fought out in Kamloops.
ergy and the environment would But the severe shortage of acute
|
be hard-pressed to justify giving] care beds — an unprecedented
| the company the go-ahead for | Shortage according to NDP health
the project. critic Dennis Cocke — reveals the
“The company’s submission | gOovernment’s share of the prob-
contains no ground water study, | lem. Chronic underfunding in gen-

eral and, in particular, a political
reluctance to approve hospital con-

ho data showing why the sul-

phur from coal won’t leach into : P : & .
tan hay created it" ads would also reiterate the pledge against the leadership of Mande- schedule negotiated last week be-
RSE . ee ae gue aa SARS Kove mee siesta was of CU&C to publish the names of ville and others because ‘‘the tween the BCMA and the Medical
from the mine Acthe fishery will | not itself taking the initiative in in- | doctors who extra-bill or opt outin ._BCMA has powerful methods for _ Services Commission as “rich.” It
be.”? Gabeliian noted. +g troducing the legislation outlawing  ofder that patients can boycott internal discipline.” calls for an increase retroactive to

However, the indication he has
privately from doctors, he said, is
that there is a sizeable group which
is ‘‘fed up’’ with the reform leader-
ship and would probably support

Apr. 1, 1981 of 14 percent, a fur-
ther increase, non-compounded,
of 8.3 percent on Aug. 1, 1981 and
_an increase of 14 percent Apr. 1,
1982, applied to the 1981 rate.

extra-billing; it was merely re-
sponding to public pressure for
such a ban. In fact, the Socreds,
like other right-wing governments

| Robert Bell-Irving, chairm:.1
| of the broad-based Campbell
| River coalition Save Our Sal-
mon (SOS), added that ‘‘if stage

“It?s important to remember
that it’s not the BCMA itself which
is the problem,”’ he said, ‘but the
‘reform’ leadership of the BCMA

aa ae cin ia Thilssophucaly oppoest ehh rey which is committed toonething— the proposed fee schedule in a mail- The total increase, compounded
According: to: Bell-Irving the | _ billing since it provides a means to changing the medicare system.” in vote. The decision on whether to Over two years is 39.9 percent, he
low grade coal, whichhasahigh} Unload some of the government Schreck contended that the  sendtheoffer out toa mail vote was said. ine

| sulphur content, is prone to se-} costs directly on to the patient. “mainstream’’ of the BCMA sup- to be made Wednesday at the It’s higher than any offer to
|. [vere leaching. ” For the hard-line, reform leaders Port the medicare system but have BCMA executive meeting. doctors anywhere in the country,

| “The coal will be stockpiled of the BCMA, extra-billing is more been prevented from speaking out- Schreck termed the proposedfee  henoted, adding that for Dr. Man-
| andleaching of toxicmetalsinto} fundamental. They see it as a busi- deville himself, as a specialist, the
proposed schedule would add

the watershed are inevitable,’’
he said.

_ “There are .06 parts per mil-
lion of zinc’ in the watershed
right now, and .083 parts per

million is considered poisonous '

if not lethal.”

At stake for the Campbell
River community is the destruc-
tion of natural salmon spawn-
‘ing grounds and the potential
loss of a major fish hatchery, the
Quinsam River Hatchery. That
federally-funded project is at-
tempting a major expansion of
Chinook salmon stocks this
‘year, Bell-Irving added.

While Weldwood intends
that the mine operate for 10
years and projects up to $7 mil-
lion economic spinoff, Bell-Irv-
ing pointed out that the tourist
and commercial fishing indus-
try together net about $40 mil-
lion for the Campbell River
economy.

Arnie Thomlinson, environ-
mental director for the United
Fishermen and Allied Workers
Union, said his union had called
for a full public inquiry into the
proposed mine. .

“Under the provisions of the
new Utilities Commission Act, a
public inquiry has to be held
since it concerns the develop-
ment of an energy source,’’ he
said. ;

UFAWU secretary-treasurer
George Hewison was quick to
point out that Weldwood was
using the argument that Van-
couver Island would become en-
ergy self-sufficient as a ‘‘smoke-
screen”’ to hide its real inten-
tions of exporting the coal
abroad.

nessman’s tool to boost their own

incomes while diminishing govern-

ment control over the system.
They want medical plans to re-

‘main — to provide the bulk of their -

income — but want the right to in-
crease their incomes at will by
boosting the ‘‘extra-billing’’ charge
to whatever they can exact from
their patients. They would also like
to have government control re-
moved from the Medical Services
Plan.

And the attack on the system has
recently become direct and frontal.
Dr. Terry Johnston, one of the
Kamloops doctors who began
extra-billing this week, has been
widely quoted for his comment, ‘‘I
would say at this point that medi-
care as you know it now, is as good
as finished.’’

Even if the reform group is not
successful in pushing its hard line

- through the convention and the

vote on the fee schedule — and
there is some indication that the
majority of doctors may accept the
government’s offer — the fight to

- preserve medicare has still to be
won. And that will require consid-_

erable public pressure.
One of those taking action this
week is the CU&C Health Services

Society, the main carrier for trade -

union health plans, which will be
publishing advertisments in the
province’s main daily newspapers
on Wednesday urging citizens to
act to save medicare.

The ads, which urge people to
write Dr. Norman Rigby, executive
director of the BCMA and health
minister Jim Neilson, will be re-
peated in the Vancouver Sun and
Province on Thursday. :

CU&C manager Dave Schreck
told the Tribune Monday that the

Increase in premiums
‘totally unjustified’

Statements by health minister
Jim Neilson on the results.of the '
BCMA-government negotia-
tions have pointed directly to in-
creased premiums for medical
insurance — despite the fact
that British Columbia is only
one of three provinces which
charge medicare premiums and
in spite of recommendations
from Justice Emmett Hall that
premiums be abolished alto-
gether.

— Neilson said Saturday that if

the agreement on doctors’ fees
were ratified, the extra $168 mil-
lion would have to be raised
partly through increased prem-
iums, with the remainder com-
ing from general tax revenue.

At present, one-third of.
health costs are paid through
medicare premiums, he said,
broadly implying that formula
would be maintained.

But an increase in premiums
is totally unjustified.

Already, British Columbia is
one of only three provinces —
Alberta and Ontario are the oth-
ers — which levy premiums.
The other provinces meet costs
through general revenue.

And in his report last year,
Justice Emmett Hall, one of the
chief architects of Canada’s
much-admired medicare sys-
tem, reiterated the widespread
contention that premiums are a
regressive form of tax and

recommended that they be
phased out entirely over a pe-
riod of five years. Increasing
premiums now would not only
make that regressive tax even
more inequitable, but would
also be a retrogressive step for
the medicare system.

Perhaps more important is
that the Socred government is
already reneging on its commit-
ment to health care funding.

Since the federal government
changed the method of provid-
ing federal funds to the prov-
ince, the B.C. government has
been steadily falling short of
matching federal increases in
health care funding. In short, al-
though the federal government
has increased the amount of
money spent on health care, the
Socred government in this prov-
ince — as well as those in other
provinces, and particularly On-
tario — has not increased its
spending by anything like the
same percentage.

In the four years since the
funding system was changed,
federal spending on health has
increased by 75 percent while
provincial governments have
only increased spending by 54
percent. Only in Saskatchewan
— significantly the ‘‘home
province’? of medicare — has
the provincial increase in spend-
ing roughly matched the federal
increase.

$80,000 to his gross income over
the two years.

That figure is based on the bills
Mandeville sent to the Medical Ser-
vices Plan for the fiscal year ended
Mar. 31, 1980. They amount to
$176,000.

Schreck emphasized that al-
though the fee offer went a long
way towards answering the doc-
tors’ demands, the reform group
was continuing to manipulate the
fee issue in its campaign against
medicare.

‘‘Mandeville has been very suc-
cessful in dominating the media
and in stacking the deck at the con-
vention,”’ he said.

‘But he is engineering the de- -
struction of medicare.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 15, 1981—Page 3