PROFIT® and trade agreements

PROFIT® and trade agreements go hand in hand. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is very clear – the exemption for health care, which has kept large U.S. health corporations out of Canada, applies only to the extent that health care services are social services established or maintained for a public purpose.

Once we privatize even some health care services, NAFTA could force Canada to give equal treatment to U.S. companies competing for patients with our public system. That means the argument that Canada could copy models in Sweden, France or Switzerland is a complete fallacy because unlike Canada, these European countries aren’t tied to the U.S. by a free trade agreement.

And the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is highly problematic for the continual survival of public health care in Canada.
PROFIT® is not the cure for Canadian health care, and trade agreements might prove to be a recurrent disease rather than a remedy.

Resources:

Supreme Court Health Ruling Oblivious to Trade Treaties
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives | Scott Sinclair | June 30, 2005

Trojan Horse: Trade Treaties, Private Health Insurance, and the Supreme Court Decision (PDF)
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives | Jim Grieshaber-Otto & Noel Schacter | June 28, 2005

Putting Health First: Canadian Health Care Reform in a Globalizing World (PDF)
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives | Matt Sanger & Scott Sinclair | November 4, 2004

Bad Medicine: Trade Treaties, Privatization and Health Care Reform in Canada (PDF)
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives | Jim Grieshaber-Otto & Scott Sinclair | July 27, 2004

Merchants in the Temple? The Implications of the NAFTA and GATS for Canada’s Health Care System (PDF)
Health Law Review | Tracey Epps | December 22, 2003

Trading Away Health? Globalization and Health Policy (PDF)
Centre for Health Services and Policy Research | Aleck Ostry & Karen Cardiff | November 9, 2001

Legal Opinion on the Threats to Medicare by NAFTA and the WTO
Canadian Health Coalition | Gottlieb & Pearson | October 1999

Legal Opinion on NAFTA Reservations in the Area of Health Care
Canadian Health Coalition | Dr. Bryan Schwartz | March 1996