The biggest obstacle to meaningful health care reform in Canada: government unions. At each and every mention of incremental change to the current system a veritable army of doomsday predictions are unleashed on the public.

Fear mongering campaigns launched and financed by wealthy unions are nothing more than knee jerk reactions to protect their monopoly stranglehold on the public purse and government health care.

A few forward thinking health care initiatives in British Columbia demonstrate the point. Recently, the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) announced as part of its five year strategic plan to contract out day surgeries to private facilities. The plan will help ease wait times for patients and increase overall surgical capacity for VIHA.

The private facilities will conduct cataract surgeries as well as orthopedic, dental and general procedures. For patients it means getting surgery quicker and for VIHA it means greater availability for complicated surgeries like hip and knee replacements.

The procedures will be paid for with public dollars and delivered by the private facilities. The Hospital Employees Union (HEU) says "British Columbians should be alarmed." Yes, alarmed because the HEU doesn't have a contract with any private facilities and patients care is being put in front of union demands. Bravo VIHA!

Another example involves the new hospital in Abbotsford. The government is building the province's first hospital in a generation and stretching limited resources as much as possible by using the highly successful public-private partnership (P3) model. Basically, P3's shield taxpayers from cost overruns and ensure projects are delivered on time. Abbotsford is the first hospital of its kind in Canada.

The hospital is public but will be built, operated and maintained by a private partner. Union rhetoric, however, borders on libel, calling Abbotsford a private, for-profit hospital. The BC Health Coalition (a union-backed mouthpiece) has an on-going campaign against the hospital and claims that, "P3 hospitals are a serious threat to the future of Medicare in this country and must be stopped."

And why does this group oppose the hospital in Abbotsford Because unlike other hospitals, the unions don't have a de facto right of employment. Taxpayer's interests are put ahead of union interests. The private partner will provide most of the services that unions do in other hospitals. Food, laundry and landscaping are all provided by the private partner. And most shocking of all, the partner has to meet quality standards or their contract can be scrapped.

You can understand why a government monopoly union would oppose such conditions. They have never been evaluated on measures like quality because, of course, that's a concept not relevant in the sheltered world of the public sector.

Unions have even tried to restrict the ability of individuals to use their after-tax dollars for medical services. The recently established Copeman Healthcare Centre which specializes in offering around the clock, comprehensive health care services for an annual fee, prompted outrage from the BC Health Coalition. "The BC government must act quickly and decisively to end two-tier medical services like the Copeman Clinic" warned the group.

Government unions not only want a monopoly on all your tax dollars but want to dictate what you can do with you after tax dollars too. Our aging population and burgeoning health care costs can no longer sustain the "luxuries" of government union demands. Moreover citizens should be entitled to spend their after tax dollars on health care if they choose. It's obscene that Canadians are free to spend what we choose on tobacco, alcohol and gambling; but not healthcare!

Private health care will happen as a practical necessity and doomsday predictions will be proven to be nothing more than what they are: union rhetoric.