Unlike American politicians, Canadian ones have been honest with their people about the implications of the multilateral trade agreements that Canada has signed, for the nation's existing health care program, and all future reforms. (like expanding coverage to drugs, which threatens profits for multinationals and hence, potentially conflicts with GATS)
They were VERY lucky to have already had a national health plan when GATS was signed in the early 90s, but they still feel that they need to walk VERY softly today, because GATS has the potential to irreversibly destroy their nation's health care, if triggered. Just like NAFTA, GATS is filled with hidden traps. The Senate Bill, as it currently stands, will trigger GATS on health care, making affordable healthcare impossible, forever.
Please read Canada's well researched and written explanation of GATS and the other trade agreements and when you read things like the following on page 16, understand that it applies to the USA.
Also read Global Trade Watch's report
about the various GATS-triggering or conflicting proposals made by candidates like McCain and Obama to get elected.
If you wonder: THIS IS SO IMPORTANT, WHY HASN'T ANYBODY TOLD ME ABOUT THIS - and IS THIS MESS WHY THEY ACT AS THEY DO? - thats a very good question! WHY? WHY DO THEY LIE?
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From "PUTTING HEALTH FIRST: Canadian Health Care Reform, Trade Treaties and Foreign Policy"
"These commercial principles are at odds with the fundamental public purpose of Medicare: the provision of health care to all, on the basis of need rather than the ability to pay.
Durable health care reform requires acknowledging this underlying clash of principles and firmly establishing that Canadians’ democratically expressed values regarding health care take precedence over commercial and trading interests.
To create Medicare, governments had to act decisively in the public interest despite powerful opposition. Our governments, first in Saskatchewan and then nationally, built the foundations of Medicare after almost two decades of public debate among divergent interests. They determined that the collective benefit of a public health insurance system—pooling the risk of all Canadians and guaranteeing access to hospital and Putting Health First: Canadian health care reform, trade treaties and foreign policy medical services on the basis of need—outweighs the commercial losses to private health insurers who were displaced by the introduction of Medicare. In the 36 years that followed, federal legislation extended public insurance to cover physicians’ services as well as hospital care, our health care system has expanded enormously, and an intricate relationship between public and private sectors has evolved. This system, which was implemented despite sometimes bitter opposition by private insurers and powerful elements of the medical profession, has become not only Canada’s most valued social program, but also a crucial feature of Canadian identity.
If Medicare did not already exist today, the full force of Canada’s current international trade and investment obligations would now almost certainly make creating it far more difficult, if not impossible. The prospect of compensating well-entrenched foreign commercial interests for lost investment opportunities would probably be enough to tip the balance in favour of Medicare’s foes.
Today, rejuvenating Canada’s health care system, and allowing for its future enhancement, demand the same strength of principled commitment that prevailed in building Medicare. Frankly acknowledging the risks posed by international trade treaties is the first step to ensuring that they do not hinder health care reform and to averting adverse impacts on Canada’s health care system. "
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From Global Trade Watch
McCain Proposal for National Health Care Market Would Raise Cost of Removing U.S. Health Care from WTO Jurisdiction
McCain has proposed the development of a "national health care market" that would facilitate entry of more foreign health care providers and thus make it far more costly for the United States to withdraw the health care sector from WTO jurisdiction. While McCain has provided few details about the proposal, implementing a real national insurance market would inherently require greatly reducing the role of states, for instance with the federal government taking control of licensing and standards now under state authority.
Pre-empting the authority of U.S. states in this area is a key demand of foreign insurance companies in the context of the WTO’s Doha Round of negotiations.43 European and other foreign insurance firms have long considered U.S. state-level regulation of the insurance market to be a market access barrier because it requires that they must obtain licenses in each of the 50 states in order to provide insurance services on a national basis.44
Since the insurance sector and health services are already covered under the GATS, new federal law that would preempt such existing state authority would facilitate the entry of foreign service-providers into the U.S. market. Once the flood gates are open and many foreign health insurance and health service providers are in the U.S. market, it would be significantly more costly for future administrations to remove the health care sector from WTO coverage, as all WTO nations with firms in the U.S. market or with an interest in the market would have to be compensated under WTO rules.45
Unless U.S. health care services are withdrawn from coverage under various trade rules, federal and state governments’ future abilities to effectively regulate the delivery of health care services, implement health care reform measures designed to expand access, and reduce the cost of health care could be stymied. Because the United States must provide compensation under WTO rules before removing U.S. health care policy from WTO jurisdiction, quick action to do so will be much less costly, before more foreign insurance and health care providers enter the U.S. market.
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What we don't know CAN hurt us!
READ UP ON GATS, THE UNSEEN HAND GUIDING OUR LEADERS
TO LIE TO US ON "HEALTH REFORM"
AND THEIR GLOBAL PRIVATIZATION AGENDA.
IT MUST NOT BE TRIGGERED. THERE IS NO WAY BACK!