Faulty facts weaken claim

I’m responding to the letter from Bob Foster, Ph.D, economics (Sept. 30). I’m questioning his sources and, hence, his argument.

The published 2009 Canadian provincial budgets place their health care expenditures covering their entire populations at around 38-43 percent of total outlays, percentages which have remained relatively stable for years. (For comparison, Washington state, with a very inadequate medical coverage of its population, spends roughly 30 percent of its budget on health care.) How then do we evaluate the statement from the doctor quoted by Mr. Foster claiming that provinces spend 50 percent of their budgets on health care?

Perhaps the answer can be found in researching the doctor being quoted, who has extensive interests in private hospitals in Canada.

Although there might be some merit in Mr. Foster’s arguments, we can’t begin to decide those merits until he checks his facts. There is no doubt that with an aging population and a pharmaceutical industry which routinely markets pills which cost a nickel to manufacture for $10 a pill without anyone in our government daring to challenge its profit margins, health care costs will continue to rise exponentially. I don’t see how maintaining the status quo will change that.

Greg Presley

Spokane