USW President Leo Gerard Speaks to Canadians about U.S. Health Care
Speaking to a pre-election conference of the New Democratic Party in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, United Steelworkers of America International President Leo Gerard highlighted some of the differences between Canadian and U.S. health care. Canadian health care is a single payer system that is publicly funded and covers everyone.
The New Democratic Party is a labor-backed third party in Canada that competes with the ruling Conservative Party and the Liberal party.
I was very much interested in what he had to say but quit watching/listening after he opened his mouth. He spent more time “thanking everybody” rather then dealing with the issues. He could have had more time but wasted it. Too bad! We are in crisis and all everyone does is argue over the issues.
Wow. What a great speaker. After the minute or two at the beginning where he thanked a short list of people, he got down to brass tacks for the remaining 22 or so minutes. He’s not arguing over the issues, he’s illuminating the right way to go forward. How to provide health care for EVERYONE, like the excellent Canadian health care system; how the private health care in the US is a bankruptcy generator even for those who have coverage, how 14 thousand US citizens die each year because of no or inadequate coverage. How 90 million people in the US have no or inadequate coverage and yet we spend 16% of GDP on this. How important a strong workers union is, how a clean environment and good jobs are the opposite of mutually exclusive– they are inextricably tied together. How deregulated multinational corporations are stripping natural resources and jobs from the country, how the deregulation of these corporations, how these deregulated corporations have led us to the worst economic disaster in our lifetimes, and hopefully the worst in our children’s lifetimes.
Good speech. I’m really excited that he has joined our board.I was also interested in how little Canada would have to up their health care expenditures to do away with waiting lists. The labor/environmental connection was also good to hear.
Vashti Winterburg
Lawrence, Kansas