Catholic nuns and bishops have squared off over it, a Republican lawmaker has referred to it as a "wet, smelly dog," and the president has shown himself to be uncharacteristically testy when defending it.
It's the latest seamy episode in U.S. President Barack Obama's healthcare reform soap opera, and after months of frequently hysterical debate about its merits, the twists and turns are off the charts this week as -- yet again -- healthcare legislation nears a possible finish line.
Obama cancelled a trip to Asia on Thursday in order to stay in D.C. for a potential Sunday vote in the House of Representatives on the $940 billion U.S. healthcare reform bill, while top Democrats work furiously behind the scenes to secure enough votes among undecided party members.
They snagged a live one earlier this week when Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, announced he'd support the bill just a few days after eviscerating it in an editorial in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
"Absent a strong public option or legal protection for states that wish to pursue single payer, the bill that the president is proposing is a step in the wrong direction," Kucinich wrote Sunday.
Fast forward three days and one Air Force One conversation with the president, and Kucinich changes his tune, telling CNN's Larry King Live: "We've moved beyond that. The things I want to see in healthcare we can move towards over the years."
The stress of the drama seemed visible earlier this week during a rare White House interview between Obama and Fox News. Obama, accustomed to giving lengthy and professorial answers to questions, grew irritable when interrupted by FOX's Bert Baier.
In a tense exchange about obscure parliamentary procedures that might be used by Democrats to push the bill through, Obama said he doesn't "spend a lot of time worrying about what the procedural rules are."
"What I can tell you is that the vote that's taken in the House will be a vote for healthcare reform. And if people vote yes, whatever form that takes, that is going to be a vote for healthcare reform."
He also likened healthcare reform to legislation aimed at fixing the financial system or pulling the economy out of a devastating tailspin.
"I knew these things might not be popular, but I was absolutely positive that it was the right thing to do," he said.
Republicans, meantime, continue to rage against the legislation that has become the defining issue of Obama's presidency. It would result in millions of Americans who don't have health insurance finally getting covered.
A Japanese-American lawmaker took offence after Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham likened the Democrats' push for healthcare reform to a Japanese kamikaze attack during the Second World War. Graham assailed Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, for her efforts to bring Democrats to heel.
"Nancy Pelosi, I think, has got them all liquored up on sake and you know, they're making a suicide run here," Graham said.
California Democrat Mike Honda, who spent part of his childhood in an intern camp because of his Japanese heritage, accused Graham of using "racially tinged rhetoric" and asked him to "show respect for our fellow Americans."
Another Republican congressman, Mario Diaz-Balart from Florida, described the bill this week as a "flea-infested, tick-infested, parasite-infected, special-interest infected, wet, smelly dog."
At so-called Tea Party rallies against healthcare reform in various U.S. cities this week, the rhetoric, not unexpectedly, has been equally colourful.
"My favourite sign that I saw is: 'Grandma isn't shovel-ready,'" Republican Michele Bachmann, a lawmaker from Minnesota, said during a raucous demonstration this week on Capitol Hill. "Because we know exactly what 'Obamacare' will lead to for the lives of innocent Americans, don't we?"
Bachman was apparently referring to the belief by some in the Tea Party movement that the bill contains provisions for "death panels" that will amount to the Grim Reaper showing up prematurely on the doorsteps of America's sick and elderly.
At an Ohio protest, a man who said he had Parkinson's disease and supported healthcare reform was heckled by the crowd.
"If you're looking for a handout, you're on the wrong side of town," a protester told the man. Someone else called him a Communist.
Democrats say support for healthcare reform is gaining momentum despite the right-wing rhetoric, pointing to the public backing they've secured from two Democrats this week: Kucinich and Dale Kildee of Michigan. Kildee had sought tighter restrictions in the bill on the financing of insurance that covers abortions.
"Voting for this bill in no way diminishes my pro-life voting record or undermines my beliefs," he said. "I am a staunch pro-life member of Congress, both for the born and the unborn."
Kildee's sudden support apparently gives the nuns the edge in their battle against bishops -- one of the more peculiar showdowns to erupt throughout the healthcare debate that's been raging for a year.
"Despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions," said a letter signed by 60 leaders of women's religious orders in a stand against their own church's hierarchy. "It will uphold long-standing conscience protections and it will make historic new investments... in support of pregnant women. This is the real pro-life stance, and we as Catholics are all for it."
Not so, said the U.S. Conference of Bishops, who now apparently agrees with the 'pro-life activists' in their insistence that the bill would make it easier for women to get abortions. The bishops have long pleaded for universal healthcare.
"Despite the good that the bill under consideration intends or might achieve, the Catholic bishops regretfully hold that it must be opposed unless and until these serious moral problems are addressed," they said in a statement.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has cashed in on his bet with U.S. President Barack Obama over the Olympic men's gold-medal hockey game.
The U.S. president's top representative in Canada, Ambassador David Jacobson, delivered a 24-pack of Molson Canadian to the doorstep of 24 Sussex Drive on Friday morning.
Mr. Harper and Mr. Obama had each wagered a box of beer on the outcome of the Canada-U.S. men's Olympic final, which was won by Canada 3-2 in dramatic fashion on Sidney Crosby's overtime goal.
Mr. Obama, through Jacobson, added an extra case of Yuengling, the president's American brew of choice had he won the friendly wager.
"To show there's no hard feelings, the president also threw in a case of Yuengling on top of the Molsons," Jacobson told the prime minister, adding he also wanted to "congratulate the Canadian people on the Games."
"They were great, the athletes were great and the spirit and hospitality were great to my people and around the world."
Mr. Harper responded in kind, lauding the American athletes and visitors to the Games -- and thanking them for making good on their wager.
"David, you guys always fulfil your promises to us and we appreciate it."
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs wore Team Canada's colours during his daily briefing in Washington a week ago after losing a similar bet to Mr. Harper's spokesman Dimitri Soudas.
Mr. Soudas said the two cases of beer would be donated to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
Congressional Democrats took the first step on Monday toward a quick final vote on a healthcare overhaul and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed to muster the votes needed to pass it.
With a close vote expected later this week, House Democrats hustled to line up support and President Barack Obama hit the road in Ohio to push his case for a sweeping overhaul of the $2.5 trillion healthcare system.
Republican opponents promised to make Democrats who support the healthcare bill pay in November's congressional elections, when Democratic control of Congress could be threatened by political fallout over the issue.
But Democratic leaders counselled nervous lawmakers to hold firm and pass the bill, which has been the focus of a political battle that has mired the Congress in legislative gridlock for nine months.
"We need courage," Obama told a crowd in Strongsville, Ohio, during his third road trip in the past week to rally support for his top legislative priority. "This debate is about far more than politics."
The House Budget Committee began the drive toward a final vote, advancing changes sought by House Democrats and Obama to the Senate-passed healthcare bill. Democrats Chet Edwards and Allen Boyd, who opposed the House-passed bill in November, broke with their party on the largely party-line 21-16 vote.
House Democratic vote-counters say they are still short of the votes necessary to pass the overhaul but Pelosi was confident they will hit the magic number by week's end.
"When we bring the bill to the floor, we will have the votes," Pelosi told reporters.
The overhaul would constitute the most dramatic changes to the healthcare system in more than four decades, extending coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans and banning insurance practices like refusing coverage to those with pre-existing medical conditions.
Health insurer shares were mixed on Monday as the broader market was little changed. The Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payor index was up 0.2% and the S&P Managed Health Care index dropped 1.1%.
Obama also maintained the upbeat tone put forth by the White House during the weekend, telling ABC News: "I believe we are going to get the votes. We're going to make this happen."
Republicans condemn the health bill as a costly government takeover that would lead to higher insurance premiums and less consumer choice. They plan to launch a series of television ads against House Democrats who support the overhaul.
Wow, attack ads... not surprising.
"If there's one thing the American people didn't want, it was for us to make healthcare more bureaucratic and expensive," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican leader John Boehner said in a joint commentary in The Wall Street Journal.
Democrats are waiting for final cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office and more advice from the Senate parliamentarian before unveiling a final package and deciding the exact process for passing it. In a two-step procedure, House Democrats want to approve the Senate's version of the bill and make changes sought by Obama and House Democrats through a separate measure passed under budget reconciliation rules.
Those rules require only a simple majority in the 100-member Senate, bypassing the need for 60 votes to overcome Republican procedural hurdles.
Pelosi said it was undecided whether the House would take a direct vote on the Senate-passed bill or include it in a separate vote on the reconciliation package. The House Rules Committee will meet on Thursday to determine the process.
House Democratic leaders met in Pelosi's office on Monday to discuss their options but announced no final decisions. "When we have the substance then we will decide on the process," Pelosi said.
The changes in the reconciliation bill include expanding subsidies to make insurance more affordable and extending more state aid for the Medicaid program for the poor.
They also would eliminate a controversial Senate deal exempting Nebraska from paying for Medicaid expansion costs, close a "doughnut hole" in prescription drug coverage for seniors and water down a tax on high-cost insurance plans.
Republicans want Democrats to vote directly on the Senate bill, which includes unpopular provisions like the Nebraska Medicaid deal, so they can use the vote against them in November.
"To resort to these kinds of tactics to deal with this is just plain wrong," Representative David Dreier, the senior Republican on the House Rules Committee, told reporters.
Donna Simpson, who is 42 years old and lives in Old Bridge, New Jersey, already tips the scales at 600 pounds but says she won't be satisfied until she's gained enough weight for herself to weigh 1,000 pounds, to grab the title of world's fattest woman, the London Daily Mail reported.
That's why she's gone on a junk-food-eating-spree. However, Simpson has given herself two years to hit the millennium mark. She earns her chow bucks, a whopping $750 a week, with a website where men pay her to watch her eat fast food.
"I love eating and people love watching me eat," Simpson said. "It makes people happy, and I'm not harming anyone."
Sure, she's not harming anyone but herself.
"I do love cakes and sweet things. Doughnuts are my favourite," she said. She's also fond of burgers and fries - an important part of her 12,000-calorie-a-day diet - and carefully avoids exercise.
Simpson already holds the Guinness World Record as the fattest mom, 532 pounds when she gave birth in 2007. She says her boyfriend Philippe, 49, eggs her on.
"I think he'd like it if I was bigger. He's a real belly man."
What do you do when you're old but still healthy and feel that you have nothing to live for? Well, you would commit suicide. Well, that's what some people would think.
And in the Netherlands, this appears to soon become reality.
The country's MPs will discuss the "right to die" proposals after a campaign forced a debate by collecting over 100,000 signatures in support.
The influential Dutch "Right to Die" campaign, active since 1973, has launched new "vrijwillig levenseinde", or "of free will", demands to extend euthanasia beyond assisted suicide for terminally ill people.
The group has proposed training non-medical staffers to administer a lethal injection to healthy people over the age of 70 that "consider their lives complete" and want to die.
Under the plans, the suicide assistants would be certified and would be required to make sure that patients were not temporarily depressed and had a "heartfelt and enduring desire" to die.
Marie-Jose Grotenhuis, the campaign's spokeswoman, said: "We've been overwhelmed by the amount of reactions, especially because people took it so seriously and reactions were mostly positive."
Euthanasia was legalised in Holland in 2002 and the new proposals have been backed by the majority of people in Dutch opinion polls.
The Royal Dutch Medical Association is divided over calls to extend euthanasia beyond those suffering from painful terminal illnesses and has set up a committee to examine the proposals.
Sander Hofman, the association's spokesman, said: "For instance, a doctor probably has a role in easing the suffering of a person who is refusing to eat or drink."
Several European countries, including neighbouring Belgium, allow euthanasia for terminally ill people who wish to die. Britain and France allow terminally ill people to refuse medical treatment but stop short of allowing active assisted suicide.
The Dutch legalisation for euthanasia for the terminally ill was preceded by decades of negotiations that attached stringent conditions and medical supervision. Up to 2,500 euthanasia cases were reported in Holland in 2009, up nearly 10%, rising over the last decade as doctors have used to the practice.
But, even if the Dutch parliament approves the extension of euthanasia to health elderly people, any new legislation would take over a decade to implement.
The Conservative government appears ready to move ahead on imposing random roadside breath testing, which a new federal discussion paper says has produced "remarkable results" in catching more drunk drivers in other countries.
The Justice Department is inviting public input on the idea of random sobriety tests and federal officials plan to meet this month and next with provincial ministers and other experts to measure support.
In a rare move, the federal government has posted on its website a discussion paper, weighing the benefits of random testing, seeking feedback by the end of April.
Empowering police to conduct random breath tests would replace Canada's 40-year-old legislation on impaired driving, which dictates that breathalyser tests can only be administered when there is reasonable suspicion of drunk driving.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has already said he likes the idea, and MADD executive director Andrew Murie said the coming talks with interest groups and provincial governments are a sign the government could take action.
"I think the tone is that this is something they should do and the discussion paper reflects that," said Murie, stressing that he has no inside information on when, or even if, a proposed new law would be introduced in Parliament.
The Justice Department paper states the government is eyeing "a comprehensive set of reforms" to combat impaired driving.
Murie described random breath tests as "No. 1, far and away" among about eight recommendations last year by the House of Commons justice committee that would reduce the growing number of deaths caused by drunk drivers.
The aforementioned discussion paper, which states that the Government of Canada accepts the committee's recommendations in principle, noted that Canada would be following Australia, New Zealand and 22 European countries that have imposed random testing.
The Justice Department reports that such testing has reduced fatal crashes by as much as 35% in some jurisdictions and, in New Zealand, saved society more than $1 billion in 1997 alone.
A Windsor surgeon who performed two unnecessary mastectomies is seeking to have her privileges reinstated at Windsor's Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital in the midst of three investigations into her practice. Dr. Barbara Heartwell, who is under investigation by the hospital, the Ontario Ministry of Health and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, will make her case before a panel of hospital board members at a formal hearing today.
Heartwell's troubles began three weeks ago, when Hotel-Dieu announced she had misread a pathology report and performed an unnecessary mastectomy last fall on Leamington, Ontario woman Laurie Johnston, who never had breast cancer.
On February 23, Heartwell voluntarily stopped performing surgeries at Hotel-Dieu after it was revealed she also removed Janice Laporte's cancer-free breast in 2001.
But three days later, Heartwell "unexpectedly" withdrew her agreement and wanted to return to the operating room. In a rare move, Hotel-Dieu's interim chief of staff at the time, Dr. Kevin Tracey, immediately suspended her privileges, hospital officials said Tuesday.
Under the Ontario Public Hospitals Act and hospital bylaws governing professional staff, Heartwell was entitled to have her suspension reviewed by Hotel-Dieu's medical advisory committee -- comprised of leading physicians at the hospital -- within five days. The committee then makes a recommendation to the hospital's board of directors on whether to reinstate privileges.
A panel of board members will hear submissions Wednesday from the medical advisory committee and Heartwell, who will attend the hearing with her lawyer.
Hospital board chairman Egidio Sovran said the board will act as a quasi-judicial decision maker and "must act impartially in accordance with relevant legislation."
The board will make its decision after considering arguments from both sides.
Heartwell can appeal the decision to the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board, an independent tribunal that holds hearings concerning doctors' hospital privileges. Hotel-Dieu is currently reviewing all of Heartwell's past cases. The Ministry of Health also got involved recently, sending investigators to Windsor.
In addition, the ministry is also reviewing about 3,000 pathology reports following the January 4 suspension of another Hotel-Dieu medical official, pathologist Dr. Olive Williams, over errors in her work. Williams, who analyzed specimens for all three hospitals in the area, has since resigned from Hotel-Dieu.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons is investigating both Heartwell and Williams.
With local residents still overwhelmed by the loss of Ontario Provincial Police Constable Vu Pham, a clearer picture emerged Tuesday of the douche involved in his shooting. Fred Preston, 70, of Burk's Falls, Ontario remains in critical condition in a London hospital, where he was being treated for injuries sustained in Monday's shootout.
The provincial Special Investigations Unit, which was probing the incident, said Preston became involved in a confrontation with Ontario Provincial Police at 82352 North Line, a home in rural Leadbury, Ontario about 90 kilometres north of London.
Constable Pham, 37, was shot after he pulled over a suspect vehicle around 10 a.m. Monday. A gun battle ensued between OPP and the suspect, who was ultimately wounded by police. Some witnesses reported hearing around 20 shots.
The home on North Line, where neighbours say a man named John Driscoll resided, was under police guard Tuesday. There were reports Preston's estranged wife may have shared that address.
Meanwhile, in nearby Wingham, Constable Pham's neighbours, friends and colleagues were struggling to recover from the loss of the 15-year OPP veteran, who worked out of the Huron detachment and was married with three young children.
"He was forever outside teaching them how to throw a ball, or kick a ball," next-door neighbour Lorne Mackenzie said in an interview at the local arena where Const. Pham coached hockey.
In a Pentecostal church that is minutes from the arena, Constable Pham's family were making funeral arrangements, according to police officers blocking access to the building. By all accounts, Constable Pham was a loving father, a dedicated officer and an active member of the community. A cluster of vehicles were parked outside his home on a quiet side street in the Wingham region.
"Anybody that knew him, liked him," Mackenzie said, noting Constable Pham's wife, Heather, has been "falling back on her faith" to cope.
Chief Tim Poole of the Wingham Police Service, who worked with Constable Pham on matters concerning the town, said the pair frequently went out for coffee, where Constable Pham spoke about his family and his children's sporting events. The local force was stunned by the news of his death, Chief Poole said.
"Everyone copes in their own way," he said outside the station. "It's a tragedy that shouldn't have happened."
The Wingham OPP detachment was sealed tight earlier in the day, the flag outside at half-mast.
A "good listener," Constable Pham was always busy outside his home, tending to his yard or playing soccer or baseball with his children, neighbour Doug Noble said.
"Around here, a lot of days are the same, and then one day, something happens that changes everything," Noble said.
Neighbour Kim Smith, recalling pleasant conversations with the Phams at community barbecues, called them "the perfect family" and said they were heavily involved in the local church.
"Everybody's devastated," Smith said, with tears in her eyes.
Constable Pham, who is a native of Saigon, Vietnam, "lived for his children," and they will miss him dearly, Mackenzie said.
He recalled how the neighbours often relaxed together by a backyard campfire, and says he will remember the Phams in a happier time: "The five of them, sitting by the fire, enjoying them-selves."
Burk's Falls is approximately 260 kilometres north of Toronto.
A weekend admission by former Alaskan governor and U.S. vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin over her family's use of the Canadian healthcare system while growing up in Alaska has critics of the outspoken hockey mom crying foul online.
"My first five years of life we spent in Skagway, Alaska, right there by Whitehorse," Palin said during a speech in Calgary on Saturday. "Believe it or not -- this was in the '60s -- we used to hustle on over the border for healthcare that we would receive in Whitehorse. I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn't that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border getting healthcare from Canada."
It was little surprise that Sarah Palin's first visit to Canada would be in Calgary. And there was little shock that she was able to curry favour with the local Albertan crowd by speaking at length and with much authority about the Alaska government's process of securing TransCanada for the Alaska Pipeline Project.
But given Palin's previous warnings about the ills of expanding government role in U.S. healthcare, American media and the general blogosphere were buzzing over the claim.
On the Daily Kos website, one post -- entitled Sarah "The Death Panel Queen" Palin Went to Canada for Healthcare -- called the former Alaskan governor "opportunistic" and "hypocritical."
"It's good enough for her, but not for the rest of the American people who don't have easy access to Canada and a system that isn't based on wage discrimination?" the post made on the left-leaning political blog stated.
And Gawker.com also pointed out Palin's comment, writing that her family put her brother on a train "and sent him to Canada for the socialism."
Palin has previously claimed Canada should dismantle its public healthcare system and called the push by U.S. President Barack Obama to nationalize the American system "irresponsible," suggesting the move would allow "death panels" to choose whether Americans would live or die.
The Yukon reference was the only time healthcare was mentioned in Palin's speech or in her subsequent interview with Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin, who is still best known as a veteran TV journalist.
Wallin instead pressed Palin on why she wanted to be a political leader if she was warning members of the Tea Party Patriots -- a disparate group of anti-tax, libertarian activists -- not to take someone on as their leader because "a politician will disappoint."
Palin also spoke about how, as governor, she significantly hiked state taxes for oil companies, or, in her words, "readjusted the value" of extracting a resource that belong to Alaskans.
Several conservative Alberta politicians were in attendance at the Calgary event, including former premier Ralph Klein, federal cabinet minister Stockwell Day, Calgary MPs Rob Anders and Lee Richardson, and Wildrose Alliance leader Danielle Smith -- who has drawn many comparisons to the former U.S. vice-presidential hopeful.
U.S. President Barack Obama cast America's private health insurance companies Monday as the premium-hiking villains in the nation's healthcare crisis and hailed Canada's publicly funded healthcare as a system that "works."
But as he embarked on a spirited and far more partisan phase of his campaign to pass landmark healthcare legislation, Obama defended himself against liberal critics who feel betrayed the White House has abandoned plans to create a U.S. government-run insurance program.
"On one side of the spectrum, there were those at the beginning of this process who wanted to scrap our system of private insurance and replace it with a government-run healthcare system like they have in some other countries," Obama told an audience in Glenside, Pennsylvania. "Look, it works. It works in places like Canada, but I didn't think it was going to be practical and realistic to do it here."
Obama has set a difficult March 18 deadline for the U.S. House of Representatives to act on his demand for passage of a $950 billion healthcare bill that cleared the Senate before Christmas.
The White House is optimistic that Obama could then sign a final version of the legislation, incorporating a series of amendments proposed by the president, into law early this spring.
In the interim, Obama has some heavy lifting to do with the American public, which has become sceptical of a comprehensive bill amid persistent economic concerns and congressional inaction.
Several polls have shown a majority of Americans, though confused about what's in the legislation, want Obama to set aside healthcare reform or start over from scratch.
Obama's speech in Pennsylvania, the first of several he has planned in the coming weeks, was designed to try to turn public opinion around.
Gone was the Obama who sounded more professor than president when pitching healthcare during January's state of the union and his recent healthcare summit in Washington.
He delivered a campaign-style address targeting Republicans who criticize healthcare reform as too costly in a time of economic turmoil, but did not attempt change when they held the levers of power in Washington.
"My question to them is: 'When's the right time? If not now, when? If not us, who?'" Obama said. "You had 10 years. What happened? What were you doing?"
Obama was even less charitable toward private insurance companies that continue to raise premiums on middle-class customers even as they routinely deny coverage to Americans who have pre-existing health conditions.
"The insurance companies continue to ration healthcare based on who's sick and who's healthy, on who can pay and who can't pay," he said.
The president referred to a recent case in California, where Anthem Blue Cross attempted to raise premiums by 39%.
"Because there's so little competition in the insurance industry, they're okay with people being priced out of the insurance market... they'll still make more money by raising premiums on customers that they keep," Obama said. "And they will keep on doing this for as long as they can get away with it."
The White House health plan seeks to provide almost 31 million Americans with medical coverage by imposing an "individual mandate" requiring them to buy insurance, with federal subsidies provided to people who cannot afford a plan.
It would bar insurance companies from denying coverage to the sick, curb massive premium hikes and eliminate the practice of setting lifetime limits on coverage.
The legislation would also seek to lower the cost of private insurance for the middle class by creating a series of healthcare exchanges that would allow people to shop around for better deals.
John Boehner, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, said Obama's latest healthcare sales pitch was "heavy on snake oil." Republicans contend Obama's plan would drive up the U.S. deficit and force cuts to existing entitlements, such as Medicare coverage to U.S. seniors.
But some Democrats believe Obama needed to regain control of the healthcare narrative by making a moral case for near-universal coverage. At times, Obama has made a more intellectual argument about the threat rising healthcare costs pose to the overall U.S. economy.
"That's the most fiery I've seen him since the early campaign," said Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, who attended Obama's speech. "When I was listening to him I wished that he had given that in the state of the union. If it's the state of the union he would have reached a lot more people."
U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday decided to roll the political dice on healthcare reform, telling Congress it "owes the American people a final vote" on a $950-million bill aimed at providing insurance to 31 million people lacking medical coverage.
After failing last week to win Republican support for the long-stalled legislation, Obama told Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives they have a responsibility to move ahead without backing from the opposition party. He asked that a final vote be held within the next few weeks, likely before lawmakers break for Easter.
"We can't just give up because the politics are hard," Obama said in a 15-minute White House speech.
"At stake right now is not just our ability to solve this problem, but our ability to solve any problem."
Obama's decision to force a conclusion to Washington's yearlong debate comes after a high-stakes healthcare summit with Republican leaders on February 25 collapsed without any significant compromise from either side.
Republicans demanded Obama scrap plans for a comprehensive healthcare bill -- calling it an unaffordable intrusion by the U.S. government -- and asked that Democrats start over with a more piecemeal approach that addressed the most egregious abuses in the system.
But Obama said Wednesday any effort to "tinker around the edges" of the country's $2.5-trillion-a-year healthcare system was pointless.
He argued such an approach would not address the biggest problems in the U.S. system -- lack of access to affordable care for the uninsured, the practice of denying coverage of Americans with pre-existing health conditions and skyrocketing out-of-pocket costs for companies and families.
"The fact is, health reform only works if you take care of all these problems at once," Obama said.
In deciding it's now or never for healthcare reform, Obama is taking the biggest risk of his presidency outside of his decision to launch a military surge in Afghanistan.
Support for Obama's signature domestic policy initiative has fallen steadily amid delays in Congress and as the American public's priorities shifted to concerns about stubbornly high unemployment.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed separate versions of healthcare legislation before Christmas.
Plans to pass a final bill for Obama's signature, however, got shelved in January when Democrats lost their 60-seat, filibuster-proof "supermajority" in the Senate after the election of Republican Scott Brown to the late Edward Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts.
Now Democrats must use a complicated legislative fast-track process called 'reconciliation' that will force an "up or down" vote in the Senate, allowing passage of the legislation with a simple 50-plus-one majority.
The strategy is for the House of Representatives to pass the existing Senate bill, and then have both chambers adopt amendments to incorporate new proposals from Obama, including four ideas proposed last week by Republicans.
The completed legislation would then be presented to Obama to sign into law.
Obama is facing a potentially substantial hurdle in the House of Representatives, where passage of a revised healthcare bill is threatened by pro-life Democrats who want tighter restrictions on federal funding for abortion.
Other Democrats are nervous about polls showing a majority of Americans want healthcare put aside for a greater focus on the economy.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called Obama's legislation "politically toxic in the extreme" and predicted its passage would turn the midterm congressional elections in November into a national referendum on the issue.
"You ignore the overwhelming desires of the American people at your own peril," McConnell said.
But Obama cast the healthcare issue as a test of leadership.
"I know there's a fascination, bordering on obsession in the media in this town about what passing health insurance reform would mean for the next election and the one after that... that's not why we're here," Obama said. "I don't know how this plays politically, but I know it's right."
The White House health plan seeks to provide almost 31 million Americans with medical coverage by imposing an "individual mandate" requiring them to buy insurance, with federal subsidies provided to people who cannot afford a plan. It would also bar insurance companies from denying coverage to the sick, curb massive premium hikes and eliminate the practice of setting lifetime limits on coverage.
The legislation would also seek to lower the cost of private insurance for the middle class by creating a series of healthcare exchanges that would allow people to shop around for better deals.
Obama has rejected the idea -- favoured by many liberal Democrats -- of creating a government-run health insurance program to compete with private providers.
A Leamington, Ontario woman who underwent an unnecessary mastectomy at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor, Ontario, has a prominent Toronto law firm and one of the most powerful public relations companies on the planet launching legal action on her behalf.
Laurie Johnston will hold a news conference Wednesday at the office of law firm Torkin Manes. In a media advisory, PR giant Hill & Knowlton said Johnston "will make a statement about the reasons for her legal action."
It will be Johnston's first public statement since she learned she wasn't the first patient at Hotel-Dieu to have a breast removed unnecessarily.
Johnston, who had a cancer-free breast removed by Dr. Barbara Heartwell in November of 2009, and Janice Laporte, a Sarnia, Ontario woman who underwent an unnecessary mastectomy by the same surgeon in 2001, have triggered probes by the Ontario Ministry of Health and the provincial body that regulates doctors. Hotel-Dieu is also reviewing cases involving Heartwell and pathologist Dr. Olive Williams.
Dr. Heartwell has voluntarily stopped operating last week after Hotel-Dieu officials learned through the media of the unnecessary mastectomies. At the time that Dr. Heartwell stepped down, the hospital announced it had suspended Dr. Williams on January 4 after reviewing her pathology reports since November.
Torkin Manes chairman Ronald Manes has been repeatedly named one of the best lawyers in Canada by his peers and is a governor of the Law Society of Upper Canada, which is the body that regulates lawyers.
Johnston's case is being handled by Barbara MacFarlane, who, according to the Torkin Manes website, is one of three lawyers at the firm who handle medical malpractice suits.
Harvey Strosberg, a Windsor lawyer who has litigated several medical malpractice suits, said there is no question Johnston has a strong case.
"This is a case where the doctor says, 'I made a mistake.' It's just a matter of damages. That's the kind of case that will probably never see the inside of a courtroom," Strosberg explained.
Strosberg predicted Johnston's lawyer will likely negotiate a settlement. Doctors are insured through the Canadian Medical Protective Association, a non-profit organization funded by doctors and the provincial government that pays damages in medical malpractice suits.
"Surgeons make mistakes from time to time. It's tragic when it happens," Strosberg said.
The parent company of Real Canadian Superstore and T&T Supermarket has pledged to stop selling non-sustainable fish and immediately removed four at-risk species from Loblaw's 1,000-plus stores across the country.
Loblaw-controlled stores sell roughly one third of the seafood sold in Canada.
Loblaw has already delisted orange roughy, Chilean sea bass, shark and skate, all of which are overfished. The four species make up about one per cent of Loblaw's seafood sales, "having already become difficult to procure," said Paul Uys, the Loblaw executive responsible for the sustainable fish initiative.
All 52 of British Columbia's Real Canadian Superstore and Extra Foods stores have stopped selling the four species. Two stores, Coquitlam Westwood and Metrotown, are participating in a pilot public education project in which customers are being informed of the policy and the reasons for it, as well as being offered substitute species that are considered more sustainable. Signs announcing the policy are placed in empty trays in the seafood department and brochures explain the program.
The information campaign will roll out in more than 1,000 stores nationwide this June.
Loblaw is formulating policy in consultation with the Marine Stewardship Council and the World Wildlife Fund. The MSC conducts independent assessments of fisheries all over the world and awards eco-label certification to those it deems sustainable.
Loblaw group plans to stop selling pet foods and supplements that contain at-risk fish products as well. Company representatives say it will take several years to fully implement the program as many standards must be researched and drafted. When the program is fully in place, Loblaw plans to buy only sustainable canned, frozen, fresh, wild and farmed fish.
"It's a very intricate position we've taken and we have to educate our staff and obviously we want to see how consumers are going to react," Uys said.
Full implementation will take until the end of 2013.
T&T Market, purchased by the Loblaw group last year, has not yet delisted the species at-risk, but Loblaw has made it clear to T&T management that the Richmond-based chain of 23 Asian supermarkets will be expected to comply with the company standard for sustainable seafood products within the announced time frame.
Loblaw considers delisting a short-term position, according to Uys. "The intent is to work with organizations and manage seafood fisheries so that they are sustainable," he explained. "Some of the species that we have delisted -- the Chilean sea bass is one -- is already being caught under more controlled, managed sources. We just aren't comfortable yet that we can sell those fish. It is our intent, as we work with these management groups, to reintroduce those species."
Loblaw's decision to ally itself with the U.K.-based Marine Stewardship Council is not sitting well with everyone. The David Suzuki Foundation, the Watershed Watch Salmon Society and the SkeenaWild Conservation Trust formally objected this week to a decision by an MSC assessment team to designate BRITISH COLUMBIA sockeye as sustainable seafood. British Columbia sockeye has not yet been certified by MSC pending consideration of objections.
"Scientists have shown that many salmon populations, particularly in the Fraser River, are not only at very low levels, but at risk of extinction," Dr. Craig Orr, executive director of the Watershed Watch Salmon Society, said in a release last week.
"[Loblaw] sources seafood from around the world and no one else has the global reach that the MSC has," Uys said. "We have no question about their ability."
Figure skater Joannie Rochette, who captured the hearts of Canadians for her bronze-medal performance in the grief-stricken days following the death of her mother, carried the Canadian flag into the closing ceremonies for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games last night.
The smiling Joannie Rochette waved to the adoring crowd as a huge contingent of the 206-member Canadian team, 86 of whom won a medal during the 2010 Winter Games, marched into the stadium, forming a circle with athletes from 81 other countries around the lit cauldron. Some of the home-grown athletes carried their own Canadian flags, and ski cross gold medallist Ashleigh McIvor sport a maple leaf tattoo on her cheek.
Cheryl Bernard's curling team looked thrilled with their silver medals, showing them off proudly to the boisterous crowd, two days after the disappointment of losing the gold-medal match.
The Canadian Olympic Committee revealed that Joannie Rochette would carry the flag into BC Place Stadium during a news conference Sunday morning. Joannie Rochette told reporters she was thrilled to be given such an honour, but was surprised when the COC approached her because a record number of Canadians had won gold during the Winter Games and, in doing so, rewrote Olympic history books. Nonetheless, Joannie Rochette was happy and gracious Sunday morning when speaking to reporters about her role in the finale.
"I thought, 'Why me?'" she said, smiling shyly. "This is such a big honour because during this whole Olympic experience I've been carried by so many Canadians."
Joannie Rochette's mother died of a heart attack on the morning of February 21, shortly after arriving in Vancouver to see her daughter compete in the women's figure skating event. Despite having been an only child who was extremely close to her mother, Joannie Rochette decided to continue to compete and, against the odds, performed so well she captured the bronze medal four days after the tragic death.
It has been a week of incredible highs and lows for the pleasant, 24-year-old woman from tiny Ile Dupas, Quebec.
"A lot of things happened this week that made me cry," she said in French.
She then added in English: "It has been a tough week for me but I am going to walk into that stadium in celebration of how great Canada was at the Games... I want to walk into that stadium with a big smile on my face because I'm proud of my skating."
And that is exactly what she did to the delight of 60,000 spectators, most of who were on their feet cheering as the Canadian team walked onto centre-stage wearing the popular knit Canadian sweaters. Joannie Rochette told reporters that she wanted to thank her fellow athletes for their friendship, many fans for all their e-mails and messages, and the COC for its support, noting the organization didn't put pressure on her to perform but allowed her to make the decision.
"What I can tell you about the Canadian team is that it is the most closely knit team there is at the Olympics and I could really witness that because I could not be here without my teammates, without their support, without all the help I got," she said.
Nathalie Lambert, the COC's chef de mission for the Games, said Joannie Rochette was chosen because she touched the entire country and inspired the other athletes with her gutsy and emotional performance.
For Prime Minister Stephen Harper, there was more riding on Sunday's hockey game than just national pride in his favourite sport. There was also a case of Molson Canadian in it, which is great beer.
Mr. Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama each wagered a case of beer on the outcome of the Olympic men's hockey final. Now that Canada has won, Mr. Obama now owes Mr. Harper a case of Molson Canadian. If the U.S. had won, Mr. Harper would have owed Mr. Obama a case of Yuengling beer.
Mr. Harper congratulated the Canadian men's team in the locker room after the game, his press secretary Dimitri Soudas said in an email.
"We're really proud of you all. You've done a great job on behalf of the country, not just this gold, which we all wanted so bad... but 14 gold... an Olympic record for any country in the Winter Olympics. Congratulations," Mr. Harper told the team.
Both leaders chose symbolic brews. Molson is North America's oldest brewery, founded in 1786 by John Molson. Molson Canadian is also an official supplier to the Vancouver Olympics and is known for its TV ads that play up nationalism over Canadian favourites like hockey, winter, and summers at the cottage. The company merged with U.S.-owned Coors in 2005.
Yuengling is the oldest brewery in the U.S. and was founded in Pennsylvania in 1829. Mr. Soudas made his own bet with his U.S. counterpart, Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs. The two had initially bet on the women's final when Canada beat the U.S. 2-0. Mr. Gibbs was to wear a Canadian hockey jersey for the first 15 minutes of a media briefing, but Mr. Soudas and Mr. Gibbs decided to go another round over the men's gold medal game. The men's team win confirms Mr. Gibbs will have to don the red and white sweater.
"Well. I've always thought that the colours of red, white and. That's it. Just red and white bring out the colour of Robert's eyes," Mr. Soudas said in the e-mail. "I'll be sending Robert a Team Canada jersey to remember and cherish for the rest of his life the closest friendship between any two countries in the world."
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Robert Nicholson said on Wednesday that the Government of Canada's medical marijuana regulations are under review after the United Nations' drugs watchdog warned that Canada needs to tighten up the system.
The Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board said Canada is operating outside international treaty rules aimed at minimizing the risk criminals will get hold of cannabis grown under the program.
"The whole question of medical marijuana is being looked at by the minister of health with respect to the options that she has," said Nicholson, whose ministry serves as the umbrella agency for the government's anti-drug efforts.
The warning in the INCB's annual report accompanies praise for the government's National Anti-Drug Strategy, which the board said it notes "with appreciation."
Nicholson said he took heart from that, adding it "plays very well" into the government's efforts to push through a crime bill containing tougher drugs-offences sentencing provisions that has been held up in the Senate.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews also argued the report "provides further proof that Canada is recognized internationally as a leader in crime prevention."
Canada increased the number of cannabis cultivation licences a person can hold last year after court decisions stated patients' earlier access had been too restricted. Currently, Health Canada has issued almost 4,900 permits allowing people to possess medical marijuana they get from more than 1,100 licensed growers, some of whom are growing it for their own use.
"Canada continues to be one of the few countries in the world that allows cannabis to be prescribed by doctors to patients with certain serious illnesses," said the INCB report.
But the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotics, which Canada has signed, says the government must be the sole distributor of the otherwise illegal substance, which patients use as a pain reliever. The opportunity for misuse of the system is reflected in an RCMP review identifying 40 cases in which licensed growers were also trafficking marijuana for profit. The same review found violations in a total of 70 cases.
While the INCB report noted that Canada "intends to reassess" its access-to-cannabis program, it said the board "requests the government to respect the provisions" of the 1961 convention in conducting its review.
The sole company among the growers that Health Canada has contracted to supply some 28% of the current permit holders signalled Wednesday it would welcome a more focused oversight.
"We get severe criticism from the armchair critics and those who feel threatened that we're infringing on their rights to produce cannabis," said Brent Zettl, president of Prairie Plant Systems Inc., of Saskatoon. "But we're already essentially conforming to the convention."
Health Canada frequently inspects the company's operations, and officially "owns" the cannabis it produces for shipment to clients.
When you were in elementary, junior or even high school, there was probably an educational assistant in at least one of your classes... and in some cases, they were attractive young women.
Well, in a November draft document that was obtained by Saskatoon newspaper The StarPhoenix, the Government of Saskatchewan's Ministry of Education sets out guidelines recommending that school divisions hire more professionals, such as psychologists, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, nurses, English as an additional language teachers and student support service teachers. Some of these professionals work at several divisions schools.
However, the proposed staffing ratios in the document also signal intent to drastically reduce the numbers of educational assistants in Saskatchewan... the support workers who often sit side-by-side with kids in class, providing individual help.
The move has outraged some parents, special education advocates and the official Opposition NDP (of course, they are irrelevant, as Saskatchewan has a majority government).
Canadians born between 2005 and 2007 can look forward to lives more than two years longer on average than those born a decade earlier, according to a new report from Statistics Canada. Life expectancy at birth went up to 80.7 years between 2005 and 2007, according to a report the agency released Tuesday, up from an average of 80.5 between 2004 and 2006 and 2.3 years longer than the life expectancy of 78.4 a decade earlier.
"There's no big gains, there's no great losses and that's fine, that's really what you'd expect," says Dianne Groll, an epidemiologist at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. "There shouldn't be any huge changes, but it's nice to see an upward trend in life expectancy."
Between 2006 and 2007, the infant mortality rate rose slightly, to 5.1 deaths per 1,000 live births from 5.0. In 2007, there were 1,881 infant deaths, up from 1,771 in 2006. The last 20 years of infant mortality statistics show a consistent downward trend and the rate has hovered around 5.0 for the last several years, Groll says, meaning this very slight uptick could be just a "blip."
"People have asked if they should start worrying and I wouldn't," she says. "You don't want to see a trend going up, but it's well within the ranges it's been in these last few years."
In 2007, the number of overall deaths in Canada increased by the greatest amount since 1993, which resumes a long-term trend that is the result of a growing and aging population. In 2007, 235,217 people died in this country, up 7,138 or 3.1% from 2006. The two largest provinces, Ontario and Quebec, account for nearly three-quarters (71%) of the increase. Men continue to close the gap on women, with their life expectancy at birth increasing by 2.9 years to 78.3 in that same decade, compared to an increase of 1.8 years to 83.0 for women.
Life expectancy for seniors over age 65 has also been rising. On average, a 65-year-old man could look forward to 18.1 more years of life in 2005-2007, up 2.0 years from a decade earlier, while a 65-year-old woman could expect to live an additional 21.3 years, an increase of 1.3 years. Life expectancy at 65 is higher than at birth because causes of death such as unintentional injuries, congenital abnormalities and suicide are much larger risk factors for younger age groups than the 65-plus crowd.
"When you are born, you have to submit to all kinds of other mortality rates over your lifetime, before 65," says Shiang Ying Dai, a Statistics Canada analyst who worked on the report. "If you reach 65 and you don't have all these other causes you could die from, you can live longer."
Gains in life expectancy among seniors over the last 10 years account for 70% of the increase in life expectancy at birth, the agency says.
"A hundred years ago, people living to 80 was almost unheard of, and then you get things like better public health, you get vaccinations, that kind of stuff and reduced environmental pollutants, so now, who knows?" Groll says. "Maybe in 50 years, they'll be looking back at 80 and thinking, 'Wow, they were dying off early.'"
British Columbia has the highest life expectancy at birth, at 81.2 years, followed by Ontario at 81.0 and Quebec at 80.7 years. The three territories combined have the lowest life expectancy across the country, at 75.8 years.
According to the CIA World Factbook, Canada ranked eighth in the world in life expectancy at birth in 2008, behind countries such as Japan, Hong Kong and Australia and ahead of others such as France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. As for the United States, it ranks 47th.
A snowboarder in Iowa is turning heads on the slopes. Well, that's because Wesley Muresan is just three years old and he's only been snowboarding for two months.
You can't miss Wesley at Sundown Mountain in Dubuque, Iowa. He's there with his eight-year-old brother and parents several times a week.
"Both my kids are home schooled so we bought a pass here as part of their physical education class and they just loved it," says his mother Danielle.
"Like everybody on the lifts above, they're all watching him, cheering him on," says Nolan Whoe, Wesley's instructor.
They're not just cheering him on because he's a little snowboarder who manages to make it down the hill. They're cheering him on because of how he gets down the hill.
"He does rails in the big terrain park. He does launch rails, box rails, rainbow rails, he goes off jumps. He grabs his board while he's in the air," says his mother.
He even gets a little frustrated when he doesn't make a jump, but mistakes are okay when you've only been snowboarding for two months.
"We thought we'd spend all year on the beginner hill, we didn't think we'd ever be off of it. But they just love it. They do it just for the pure joy of it. You can tell they love it so much," says Danielle.
His parents say if Wesley wants to take up snowboarding competitively, they'll support him as long as he's having fun.
There is no good time for the grief Joannie Rochette is feeling as she copes with the sudden death of her mother Therese. There is only bad and worse and this is surely the latter.
It is an unthinkable burden for a 24-year-old, who is no doubt already feeling the expectations of medal-hungry Canadians at a home Games that seems to be slipping away, already skating under the weight of a silver medal from the 2009 world championships. But she's still here.
She took the horrible news delivered by her father Normand and long-time coach Manon Perron at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning that her 55-year-old mother and biggest fan had died of a heart attack, and she steeled herself.
"She demonstrated a lot of control," said Benoit Lavoie, Skate Canada president. "Right after she remained composed. You had a feeling she was going back to her Olympic mode to cope."
It was no surprise to those who know her well neither that Rochette will compete Tuesday, nor that she practiced her short program Sunday and did it without breaking down. Arriving last in her group, and after quickly wiping away tears, she took the ice, waved to her father and five family friends in the seats, and with chin high and a smile pasted on her face she got through what had to be an incredibly difficult skate.
Normand, wearing a red Canada Olympic team coat, dabbed at his eyes with a tissue as he watched his daughter's every move.
"Joannie is a very courageous person. Just to be there this morning (for) the practice I was very impressed," said her Canadian teammate Cynthia Phaneuf. "She's going to get through this. She's just so strong. I think she is doing the right thing. She is not going to get any better just staying in her room. She is maybe a person to look up to, yeah?"
Rochette has to do what feels right, and the only one who knows what that will be at any given moment now is her. She almost immediately told Skate Canada officials she will compete and though they are ready to support whatever decision she makes Monday, Tuesday or Thursday, they are convinced she will follow through. That seems to be what everybody wants for her, what everybody thinks she needs.
"I know that she'll find the strength and the courage from her friends, her close friends, from her team, from her coach Manon, from the millions of fans who will be sending their thoughts and their love," said Brian Orser, a former Olympic skater and now coach of Korea's Yu-Na Kim, touted as the gold-medal favourite here in Canada. "I'm proud of her that she's continuing to compete because she's a great competitor. She's in great shape and she'll be skating for the right reasons."
"Manon and Joannie have a really tight bond and they have each other through this because Manon was really close to Joannie's mother as well. Together they will get through this and as a coach I think you have to allow her to grieve when she needs to. And I think it has to take its natural course."
We here at Huy's HomeTurf!!!@Home also wish Joannie the best and we are truly sorry for her loss. Good luck to her!
And, the fact that she is now skating in memory of her mother is even more encouraging for us. Again, good luck to her!
U.S. President Barack Obama has unveiled a new compromise healthcare plan that attempts to bridge the differences between the stalled House and Senate bills.
The proposal, posted on the White House website on Monday, would not include a publicly-run insurance plan, but would allow the government to cap health insurance premiums "if a rate increase is unreasonable and unjustified."
It would also require most Americans to carry health insurance coverage and bar insurance companies from denying coverage to people with medical problems or charging those more because of their health. The proposal claims it will insure more than 31 million Americans who cannot afford health insurance and reduce the U.S. deficit over the next 10 years by $100 billion.
The plan would also scale back a Senate-proposed tax on high-cost health insurance plans objected to by House Democrats and labour unions, but will include a Medicare payroll tax increase on upper-income earners.
The plan would also eliminate what has become known as the "Cornhusker Kickback," a controversial deal that would have exempted the state of Nebraska of having to pay its share of Medicaid expansion. Instead, the federal government will provide additional financing to all states for the expansion of Medicaid.
The new proposal comes just days before a White House healthcare summit with congressional leaders of both parties The summit at Blair House, the White House guest residence, will be televised live on cable channel C-SPAN's unedited TV feed and perhaps on cable news networks.
Although the Democrats control both the House and the Senate, the two chambers have been unable to come to an agreement on healthcare legislation, and Republicans have uniformly opposed it.
Mr. Obama's plan to reform healthcare was dealt another blow following the election of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown to the Senate, which gave the party enough votes to filibuster bills, thus making Mr. Obama very sad (we're assuming so).
The government faces a renewed battle with the provinces over healthcare cash as Canada's greying population puts an increasing strain on federal finances in the coming decades, suggests a new report by Parliament's budget officer, Kevin Page.
It is a battle that will also be fought along generational lines, as public services for Canadian seniors account for a growing proportion of federal spending, leaving working Canadians to pick up the tab even as their living standards shrink.
"The major demographic transition that is underway in Canada will strain governments' finances over the next several decades," states the report by the office of Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page. "During this time, population aging will move an increasing share of the population out of their prime working-age years and into their retirement years. With an older population, spending pressures in areas such as healthcare and elderly benefits are projected to increase. At the same time, slower labour force growth is projected to restrain growth in the economy, which will slow the growth of the general tax base from which the government collects its revenue."
Page's report casts a long shadow over the emerging debate about the March 4 federal budget. Both the Conservatives and the Liberals have so far ruled out tax hikes to reduce the deficit, which is expected to hit $56 billion this year.
The governing Conservatives have hinted they will include some specific examples of spending restraint in the budget, but have so far promised only to limit spending growth, rather than actually reduce expenditures.
However, the report warns that more radical steps must be taken for the government to dig out of chronic, "structural" deficits.
Page's office estimates the government would have to raise taxes or cut spending by the equivalent of roughly 1% of GDP -- about $15 billion -- in the next federal budget to maintain federal debt at the current level, relative to the size of Canada's economy. Raising the GST by two percentage points back to 7%, for example, would only raise roughly $10.8 billion in revenue.
Canada's debt-to-GDP ration now sits at 33.9%, giving it one of the soundest fiscal foundations among developed nations. But unless the government takes bolder steps to address the deficit, Canada's indebtedness could reach 100% of GDP by mid-century, Page's report warns. That would put Canada in the same league as fiscal pariahs such as Greece, whose massive public debts have raised the prospect of a bailout by either the European Union or the International Monetary Fund.
Canada's fiscal situation could look even worse if healthcare transfers to the provinces are allowed to grow at their current rate. Healthcare funding was the subject of bitter disputes between Ottawa and the provinces in the 1990s and early 2000s, until former Prime Minister Paul Martin signed a 10-year accord in 2004 committing the federal government to increase health transfers by 6% annually. By 2014, such transfers will reach $30 billion.
If healthcare transfers are allowed to increase at the current rate, the federal government would have to raise taxes or cut spending by nearly $30 billion in the next budget to keep Canada's debt in check.
Page's report lays out in detail how demographics are putting increasing pressure on federal finances.
The national fertility rate has fallen from a peak of 3.9 children per woman at the tail of the "baby boom," to 1.5 children per woman now. Meanwhile, life expectancy has risen to 80.6 years in 2006 from 58 years in 1926. By 2019, individuals over the age of 65 are expected to account for more than one-quarter of the population; and by 2029, more than one-third.
In addition to health transfers, a number of other federal programs are expected to face cost pressures, including Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement. Meanwhile, funding for services for younger Canadians, such as post-secondary education and childcare, will account for an increasingly smaller proportion of federal spending.
The Government of Saskatchewan wants to sharply curtail the growth in health expenditures, aiming for a 3% increase in healthcare spending as part of an overall spending freeze in this year's budget, Premier Brad Wall said yesterday. A 3% hike would be in stark contrast to the recent trend of health spending, which increased by 75% between 1996 and 2005.
Actual annual increases since then have been 6.6%, 8.5% and 11.8%, with the government projecting an 8.8% increase in the 2009-2010 budget released last spring. Mr. Wall acknowledged to reporters at the legislature that other ministries will have to reduce their budgets to allow a 3% increase in health. Even so, the health target represents a major hurdle, especially as the government plans to begin putting funding toward meeting its four-year goal of reducing wait times for surgical procedures to no longer than three months.
But Mr. Wall said that the status quo of "9, 10% (increases) and just a faith and a trust that things are going to get better" was not working.
"If we can hold it to that goal, it's significant," he said.
"So this is the challenge of the budget. And I've had officials say it would be a minor miracle if we can hold health to three per cent," he added.
Mr. Wall said that the government believes it can find administrative efficiencies by increased scrutiny of the spending by its twelve health regions, which this year, received $2.8 billion of the total health budget of $4.07 billion.
"Within that, obviously, there is a lot of healthcare delivery that is sacred, that we actually want to see improved," he said.
However, the NDP's Kevin Yates said health regions provide direct services to patients and the government will not be able to hit its health spending target without a "major deterioration" of care for Saskatchewan residents.
"There was a much larger increase last year and we saw increases in waiting times, we saw decreases in services to rural Saskatchewan. We saw a growing problem with communities being able to provide healthcare services," he said.
Kevin Yates noted that Alberta is dealing with the same healthcare issues as Saskatchewan and its budget released last week saw a 17% increase for health. There are also built-in costs for health, such as a 5% wage increase for the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, he said. Meanwhile four other health unions, plus the Saskatchewan Medical Association, are working under expired contracts. The Canadian Union of Public Employees is one of three unions which have had an open contract since 2008 and have received a final offer of four, two, 1.5 and 2% increases over four years from the government-backed Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations.
Gordon Campbell, president of the CUPE health-care council and not British Columbia's premier, said that a 3% overall increase in spending is one more strike against members accepting a 1.5% wage hike for this year.
"That doesn't come close to satisfying healthcare workers in the province," he said.
The Saskatchewan Party government has been dealing with a radically changed financial picture since the 2009 budget went the other way over potash revenue projections, which have been reduced in year by $1.8 billion. The government has said its aim is for an overall zero spending increase in the budget it will release next month, with a focus on reducing the size of the civil service through "vacancy management."
Literally stinking up the joint grounded a man's intention to fly from Charlottetown to Montreal earlier this month.
A man with foul body odour boarded an Air Jazz plane on February 6, and was left to sit by himself. Penny Walsh, of Charlottetown, was moved to another seat by an Air Canada employee so she would not have to ride alongside the man who was giving off an unpleasant smell.
"People were just mumbling and staring at him," said Ms. Walsh. "The guy next to me said, 'It's brutal.'"
Ms. Walsh, who had a cold and ended up sitting three rows in front of the man, did not get a strong whiff of the offending traveller, but said other passengers were dreading the potentially noxious flight ahead.
Apparently in an effort to clear the air, the man, who Ms. Walsh described as unkempt, was escorted off the plane. Ms. Walsh said the incident delayed the flight by only 15 to 20 minutes.
A veteran British broadcaster was arrested on suspicion of murder today after admitting that he had smothered to death an ex-lover who had AIDS, police said. Ray Gosling, 70, made the confession in a television program this week about assisted suicide, and ahead of the publication of new guidelines on assisted suicide next week.
He said he killed the unnamed man as he lay seriously ill in hospital "in the early period of AIDS," likely to be during the 1980s. A spokeswoman for Nottinghamshire Police in central England said officers "this morning arrested a 70-year-old Nottingham man on suspicion of murder following comments on the BBC's Inside Out program on Monday evening."
Gosling's confession comes amid a fierce debate in Britain about so-called mercy killings and whether people with terminal illnesses be allowed to commit assisted suicide. New, fuller guidelines on when prosecutions in such cases should be brought will be published on Thursday next week, the Crown Prosecution Service said Wednesday.
In the program, Gosling told of how he had taken his lover's life after they agreed a pact.
"In a hospital one hot afternoon, the doctor said, 'There's nothing we can do', and he was in terrible, terrible pain," he told viewers. "I said to the doctor, 'Leave me just for a bit' and he went away."
"I picked up the pillow and smothered him until he was dead."
Gosling's solicitor Digby Johnson told reporters after visiting him at the police station where he is being held that the TV host was in "good spirits" but the investigation was still at a "very, very early stage".
The law in this field has come into sharp focus after two recent cases of mothers who killed their seriously ill children, one of whom was jailed and another who were not. There have also been several high-profile cases of Britons going to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland to die in recent months.
Author Terry Pratchett, who has Alzheimer's disease, became the latest public figure to speak out this month, urging the creation of special panels where seriously ill people could make the case for their right to die legally. But those opposed say changing the law could put leave very sick people vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous relatives.
Last year, the Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales, Keir Starmer, published interim guidelines on when assisted suicide cases should be prosecuted. He was forced to take fresh action after a House of Lords ruling in the case of Debbie Purdy, a woman with multiple sclerosis who wanted to find out if her husband would be prosecuted if he helped her to die at Dignitas.
The interim guidelines said that while there were some factors which could weigh against the chances of someone being prosecuted, such as the victim asking for help, assisted suicide was still a criminal offence. The new guidance due next week should provide further clarity.
Nearly one-fifth of Canadians, or roughly 4.6 million adults, has hypertension, with hundreds of thousands of people unaware of their condition, a new survey shows. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a leading risk factor for mortality, cardiovascular disease and kidney disease, said the study released Wednesday by Statistics Canada.
About 80% of the 4.6 million Canadians with hypertension are being treated with medication, said the study. In two-thirds of those treated, the anti-hyper-intensive drugs were found to be effectively controlling blood pressure. However, among one-third of adults with hypertension, the condition remained "uncontrolled," meaning blood pressure is still high. About half of those with "uncontrolled" blood pressure, or 762,000 people, were unaware of their condition, according to the findings.
The study used analysis from the Canadian Health Measures Survey between March 2007 and February 2009, which is based on direct, automated measures of blood pressure and self-reported use of blood pressure medication in respondents aged 6 to 79 years.
Of the 19 per cent of adults aged 20 to 79 who were said to have hypertension, another 20% had readings in the pre-hypertension range, and 61% had normal blood pressure.
The last data from direct measures of blood pressure, designed to assess fitness and activity levels, lung capacity and heart rate among other factors, were based on surveys conducted in each province between 1985 to 1992, said the study's authors.
U.S. president Bill Clinton was taken to a New York hospital Thursday after experiencing chest pains for a procedure to clear a blocked artery that, which untreated, might have led to a heart attack within days, aides said.
Clinton, 63, who has a history of heart trouble, had two stents inserted in a native coronary artery after a bypass graft from an operation nearly six years ago became obstructed. Within hours, aides said, his blood pressure returned to a normal level and he was resting comfortably at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital, where he was to remain overnight.
"Clinton is in good spirits and will continue to focus on the work of his foundation and Haiti's relief and long-term recovery efforts," his counsellor, Douglas Band, said in a statement.
Just days ago, Clinton returned from Haiti, where he serves as the United Nations special envoy and is helping coordinate recovery from last month's earthquake. He was talking about Haiti on a mobile telephone with his wife's chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, even as he was being wheeled into the operating room, and only reluctantly gave up the phone, said an associate, who like others insisted on anonymity to describe the day's events.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton learned of her husband's procedure shortly before her weekly meeting with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, a senior State Department official said. After that meeting, she left for New York to be with her husband. Assured he was on the mend, she then rescheduled what was to be a Friday trip to Qatar and Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
Bill Clinton had quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery in 2004. He never had a heart attack, but that surgery, similarly, was prompted by complaints about chest pain and shortness of breath. He later developed scar tissue and fluid building up in his lung that made it hard for him to breathe, requiring another operation in March 2005.
An associate said Clinton began complaining of discomfort over the past couple of days but waited until Thursday to go to hospital because of the snowstorm that hit the East Coast. He arrived about noon and was seen by his cardiologist, Dr. Allan Schwartz, who oversaw the procedure inserting the two stents. Had he waited a few more days, the associate said, Clinton could have had a heart attack.
After three years of denying the possibility, the Saskatoon Health Region is now considering the Saskatoon City Hospital as a future site for the Children's Hospital of Saskatchewan. The health region has reversed its 2007 decision to build the $200-million children's hospital at Royal University Hospital, which was a move approved by the Government of Saskatchewan.
Questions from the public and new circumstances, major construction at and around RUH and rising operating costs, compelled the health region to reconsider its original proposal, said health region president and CEO Maura Davies.
"The original selection was made three years ago and I think it's appropriate to do the careful analysis of whether the circumstances are the same and whether the factors that favoured RUH are still valid," Davies said at the regional health authority's meeting on Wednesday.
The hospital could still be built at RUH, but the health region will now also consider building onto or moving into City Hospital.
"Given the size and importance of the project, I think it's important to do the due diligence and validate a site based on several perspectives," said Davies.
The heath region is re-evaluating its options because of the substantial construction at RUH already underway for different projects and because operating costs of hospital services have increased over the years, said Davies.
"The normal step in the process, anyway, would be confirming the site selection," she said. "This was all along part of the next step."
Davies first raised the possibility of changing sites several months ago. The decision to open location options reverses the heath region's long-held determination to see a children's hospital at RUH.
A secret intelligence report on the man considered to be the father of Canada's current healthcare system contains information that threatens Canada's national security, says Canada's spy agency.
The 1,142-page file on Tommy Douglas, a former Saskatchewan premier and federal NDP leader, was requested several years ago under access-to-information legislation, but the Canadian Security Intelligence Service has argued in court documents that many pages of the report must be kept a state secret.
"I believe that the records for which access was denied contain information which could reasonably be expected to be injurious to the conduct of international affairs, the defence of Canada or any state allied or associated with Canada or the detection, prevention or suppression of subversive or hostile activities," wrote Nicole Jalbert, the access to information co-ordinator at the spy agency, in an affidavit filed in Federal Court on January 21.
Lawyer Paul Champ is representing Canadian Press journalist Jim Bronskill, who requested the documents. Champ said he agrees with the importance of protecting confidential sources, but is sceptical whether this is all the spy agency is trying to keep secret.
"What they've done here goes far beyond that," said Champ, estimating that about 30% of the document was censored. "It's even stuff like handwritten notes along the sides of memos from the '40s (that) are blacked out. So come on. I think a lot of what it is are comments that can be embarrassing in retrospect."
For example, he suggested that disparaging remarks by investigators about socialists or communists, or comments from politicians of the day, could be among the sections that law-enforcement agencies would want to hide regarding the decades-long investigation of Douglas, who died of cancer in 1986.
"That's not a risk or danger to national security. That's history, and a very interesting history at that," said Champ. "Who knows? In 30 or 40 or 50 years from now, we might equally find (CSIS investigations of today to be) preposterous and ridiculous and maybe that's a prospect that hits too close to home."
The former NDP leader's daughter, Shirley Douglas, has also filed an affidavit in the case, supporting the full release of the document to provide more context and public knowledge about the life and times of her father. Champ said he expects arguments to be heard in court by the fall, but that the legal process could still take several years to resolve.
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams has been released from the American hospital where he had heart surgery earlier this month, his office said today.
In an email to reporters, the premier's director of communications says that Mr. Williams is "on the road to recovery," and that "doctors are very pleased with his progress."
While no date has been set for Mr. Williams to return to work, acting Premier Kathy Dunderdale said after the surgery that he should be back on the job in early March.
That timeline has not changed. When the news broke that Mr. Williams was to have an undisclosed coronary procedure done in the U.S., Ms. Dunderdale said having the surgery in Newfoundland was never an option offered to the premier by his doctors.
However, Mr. Williams' decision to travel to the United States to have his surgery made international headlines and sparked a debate about public healthcare in Canada and the United States.
Michael Jackson's doctor on today pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the sudden death of the pop star last year from a lethal cocktail of drugs. Dr. Conrad Murray, who has offices in Houston and Las Vegas, entered a Los Angeles courthouse to chants of "murderer" from Jackson fans gathered outside. Inside the courtroom, he faced members of the singer's family.
Dressed in a gray suit and red tie, Murray stood upright and spoke in a soft voice when addressing the judge. Murray has been the focus of a police probe for months since the Los Angeles coroner's office ruled that Jackson's June 25 death was a homicide, due partly to the powerful anaesthetic propofol, which Murray admitted giving the 50-year-old singer to help him sleep.
The coroner's report said Jackson's death was caused by propofol and the sedative lorazepam. Painkillers, sedatives and a stimulant also were found in his body. Authorities found bottles of propofol in Murray's doctor's bag and on the bedside table of Jackson's home, according to court records unsealed last year. They also searched Murray's offices in Las Vegas and Houston.
Prosecutors said Murray "did unlawfully, and without malice, kill Michael Joseph Jackson," according to a statement from the Los Angeles District Attorney's office.
Murray faces up to four years in prison if convicted, a sentence that some of Jackson's followers believe is relatively light given that his actions may have led to the singer's death. Murray has insisted he did nothing wrong and has told investigators he was not the first doctor to give Jackson propofol, according to court records.
Murray, a cardiologist, was hired in May 2009 to care for Jackson while he prepared for a series of 50 comeback concerts in London aimed at reviving a career sidelined by his 2005 trial and acquittal on charges of molesting a 13-year-old boy. The singer, dubbed the King of Pop, was a member of the legendary Motown singing group the Jackson 5 and was a hugely successful solo artist as an adult. His 1982 album Thriller is still the world's best-selling album.
Jackson's sudden cardiac arrest on the morning of June 25, which prompted a worldwide outpouring of grief, followed a late night rehearsal in Los Angeles for the planned concerts that were to have been called This Is It.
A documentary film, Michael Jackson's This Is It, made from video footage of the concert rehearsals, took in nearly $260 million at worldwide box offices.
When Jackson died, he left an estate worth hundreds of millions of dollars that went into trusts benefiting his mother, three children and various charities.
Jackson's family is said to be furious that Los Angeles police and prosecutors took months to file a criminal charge. His brother Jermaine Jackson, sister La Toya, mother Katherine and father Joe were in the courtroom on Monday.
Catholic nuns and bishops have squared off over it, a Republican lawmaker has referred to it as a "wet, smelly dog," and the president has shown himself to be uncharacteristically testy when defending it.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has cashed in on his bet with U.S. President Barack Obama over the Olympic men's gold-medal hockey game.
Donna Simpson, who is 42 years old and lives in Old Bridge, New Jersey, already tips the scales at 600 pounds but says she won't be satisfied until she's gained enough weight for herself to weigh 1,000 pounds, to grab the title of world's fattest woman, the London Daily Mail reported.
What do you do when you're old but still healthy and feel that you have nothing to live for? Well, you would commit suicide. Well, that's what some people would think.
The Conservative government appears ready to move ahead on imposing random roadside breath testing, which a new federal discussion paper says has produced "remarkable results" in catching more drunk drivers in other countries.
A Windsor surgeon who performed two unnecessary mastectomies is seeking to have her privileges reinstated at Windsor's Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital in the midst of three investigations into her practice. Dr. Barbara Heartwell, who is under investigation by the hospital, the Ontario Ministry of Health and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, will make her case before a panel of hospital board members at a formal hearing today.
The parent company of Real Canadian Superstore and T&T Supermarket has pledged to stop selling non-sustainable fish and immediately removed four at-risk species from Loblaw's 1,000-plus stores across the country.
Figure skater Joannie Rochette, who captured the hearts of Canadians for her bronze-medal performance in the grief-stricken days following the death of her mother, carried the Canadian flag into the closing ceremonies for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games last night.
For Prime Minister Stephen Harper, there was more riding on Sunday's hockey game than just national pride in his favourite sport. There was also a case of Molson Canadian in it, which is great beer.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Robert Nicholson said on Wednesday that the Government of Canada's medical marijuana regulations are under review after the United Nations' drugs watchdog warned that Canada needs to tighten up the system.
When you were in elementary, junior or even high school, there was probably an educational assistant in at least one of your classes... and in some cases, they were attractive young women.
Canadians born between 2005 and 2007 can look forward to lives more than two years longer on average than those born a decade earlier, according to a new report from Statistics Canada. Life expectancy at birth went up to 80.7 years between 2005 and 2007, according to a report the agency released Tuesday, up from an average of 80.5 between 2004 and 2006 and 2.3 years longer than the life expectancy of 78.4 a decade earlier.
There is no good time for the grief Joannie Rochette is feeling as she copes with the sudden death of her mother Therese. There is only bad and worse and this is surely the latter.
The Government of Saskatchewan wants to sharply curtail the growth in health expenditures, aiming for a 3% increase in healthcare spending as part of an overall spending freeze in this year's budget, Premier Brad Wall said yesterday. A 3% hike would be in stark contrast to the recent trend of health spending, which increased by 75% between 1996 and 2005.
Nearly one-fifth of Canadians, or roughly 4.6 million adults, has hypertension, with hundreds of thousands of people unaware of their condition, a new survey shows. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a leading risk factor for mortality, cardiovascular disease and kidney disease, said the study released Wednesday by Statistics Canada.
A secret intelligence report on the man considered to be the father of Canada's current healthcare system contains information that threatens Canada's national security, says Canada's spy agency.
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams has been released from the American hospital where he had heart surgery earlier this month, his office said today.
Michael Jackson's doctor on today pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the sudden death of the pop star last year from a lethal cocktail of drugs. Dr. Conrad Murray, who has offices in Houston and Las Vegas, entered a Los Angeles courthouse to chants of "murderer" from Jackson fans gathered outside. Inside the courtroom, he faced members of the singer's family.
