The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Medical technologists were to begin screening patients in Winnipeg for issues such as plugged arteries and abdominal aneurysms at the cost of $139 plus GST. Then the health authorities got in their way. Randy Spielvogel and his wife began MobileLifeScreening, a mobile screening program based in North Dakota. According to the Winnipeg Free Press, over 500 Manitobans have paid them a visit down south for screening of potentially life threatening problems. Initially Manitoba Health said the technologists were free to operate and provide their services in the province. Yet in early January, the government changed its mind. Assistant deputy minister of health Terry Goertzen told the Free Press that a group of Òphysician experts all agreed MobileLifeScreening should not be allowed to operate.Ó There was little justification provided, particularly since completed tests are verified by a radiologist in the U.S. within a matter of weeks. All of this boils down to the government protecting its health care monopoly, and this isnÕt the first time this has happened. When it first took office, the NDP government Òbought outÓ the Pan Am Clinic. This heavy-handed behaviour is not just a Manitoba phenomenon. The Ontario government had a request from a mobile screening business based in Cleveland, which it rejected. A private surgical centre faced uphill battles in B.C. before it opened its doors. Federally, almost all parties have campaigned on the antiquated notion of no private health care in Canada. What the advocates of a state monopoly donÕt want to acknowledge is that monopolies are expensive, inefficient and inadequate. Further, private health care exists all over our country: Chiropractors, optometrists and dentists all operate on a fee-for-service basis. What a strange country we live in where we can spend all of our money on gambling and tobacco, but not on health care. It would be beneficial to all Manitobans for a company like MobileLifeScreening to operate in our province. This would be an opportunity for the government to send a message it is not threatened by private sector involvement in our failing health care system. Sadly, because of blind ideology, the government is unlikely to change its decision, thus relegating more patients to the back of the line.
