NOT GOOD TIMING FOR OUR LIBS - AT 11:22 P.M. ET: 

SASKATOON — The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country's health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it.

Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country - who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting - recognize that changes must be made.

"We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doig said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"We know that there must be change," she said. "We're all running flat out, we're all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands."

COMMENT:  This is important because the Canadian plan is being looked at as a possible model to (scream loudly) Save Our Medical System, which apparently is coming apart, performing surgery without anesthesia, and allowing poodles to deliver babies. 

But the Canadian plan, like many single-payer plans, is running into trouble.  And the major flaw in all single-payer plans is that there's no alternative, at least not one that covers the entire population.

August 16, 2009