The Editor,
Irrespective of the controversy surrounding Sen. Pamela Wallin and other senators having overstepped their expenses, the question of residence for health care should not be an issue.
Universal Medicare was implemented in the 1960s so any citizen could receive health services regardless of where they lived in Canada. At some point, this concept changed where we have been excluded from coverage when traveling outside of our own province. This has profited the insurance industry while denying Canadians their basic rights to health care.
No one, including a senator, should have to justify where she has a health card for fear she won't be covered for an illness because she couldn't afford it. As a Canadian, she is entitled to a valid universal health care card covering the same benefits no matter where she resides in the country. That was the promise of Medicare and it is time this principal was upheld.
Every Canadian must demand that the prime minister and Parliament live up to this right instead of downloading their responsibilities to the provinces. As she's a member of the Conservative party, I suggest Ms. Wallin lobby her own representatives and other members of parliament to uphold and fight for the reinstatement of universal medicare.
Rita Pollock, Coquitlam
