[jmt18325]

I don't know if you realize this, but every facility in Manitoba is private. Most of them or not for profit and mostly government funded. Doctors are all small businesses and hospitals are often charities or not for profit organizations. The government doesn't own anything, it just funds it. That's why I don't think that introducing more profit element into the system won't somehow make it better.

The reality is, things have gotten much better in the last ten years. We went from something like 8 CT scanners to 20 (and replaced others) and from 2 MRIs to 8 with 3 more on the way and a couple of replacements as well. There are new facilities at HSC, St. Boniface, Brandon, Swan River and many other places with more on the way. There is a new Woman's Hospital and a mental health ER on the way. There are new ERs across the province. There are over 300 more doctors and 2000 more nurses than ten years ago. We do multiple times more special procedures and are about to get equipment that exists almost nowhere else in the world. I could go on and on and on. Health care in Manitoba is getting significantly better. That doesn't mean there isn't problems (rural facilities are understaffed and there is a rural ER closure problem for example) but those are the exact problems that won't be solved by private care.

I'm open to anything that improves our system, but I don't want change for the sake of it. Maybe private care will make our system better, I don't know, and maybe we should study it, but we were in the top tier of developed countries in terms of health care in a 2003 study, and things have gotten better since then. We're doing well. We should all do what we can to make the system better for all Manitoban's, and so far it's been going that way. I hope we continue.