Quebec's tax on the unvaccinated is a mistake, some doctors warn
The idea of a 'health contribution' for unvaccinated people launched by François Legault on Tuesday goes “against the fundamental values of public health” according to the public health director of the Gaspé region.
Dr. Yv Bonnier-Viger, a renowned epidemiologist and specialist in public health and preventive medicine, is asking Quebec to "think seriously" about the repercussions of such a measure.
These are not measures that correspond to public health values," says Dr. Bonnier-Viger.
The expert has serious reservations about the measure presented by Premier François Legault, who wants to impose what he calls "a health contribution", or a tax, on people who have not been vaccinated.
“I think that we would be completely forgetting our system of coverage and universal health insurance. We know that about 40 per cent of illnesses are preventable. If we start taxing all the sick people for the bad decisions they made at some point in their lives, we're going off the rails," noted the doctor.
“There are plenty of lifestyle habits that lead to disease. But often, underneath that, there's a lot more,'' adds Bonnier-Viger, who has been in charge of public health in the Gaspé region since 2016, and of the Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay for the past few months.
“Instead of forcing, we need to go and see what’s behind it for those who are not currently vaccinated," explained Bonnier-Viger.
“There are people who are really afraid of being vaccinated, who have all sorts of beliefs! It's not rational not to get vaccinated. We have to understand where it comes from, how it is maintained and solve the problem at the source,” he said.
According to him, the punitive approach being put forward is more political than scientific, as it "moves away from the fundamental values of public health."
“The general attitude in our field is much more one of empowering an individual and a community through the values of education and solidarity. They should take precedence over restrictive measures,” he said.
Bonnier-Viger welcomes the debate initiated by the announcement but asks Quebec to take the time to weigh the impact of implementing such a measure:
"It's a good debate, but we must think about the concrete impacts,” he said.
LOGIC USED BY PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES
In an open letter published by Médecins québécois pour le régime public, an independant advocacy group, health-care professionals warned of what it called a "slippery slope" towards the commodification of health.
In an interview on Wednesday, the organization's spokesperson, Dr. Mathieu Isabel, said that unvaccinated Quebecers are not homogenous, and many of them face barriers to vaccination sites and access to information.
Those people include homeless people, those with mental health problems, and immigrants who do speak neither French nor English.
"We made the choice as a society, several decades ago, to ensure a universal and public health system. For us, we are opening an excessively dangerous breach by introducing taxation according to individual risk,' said Dr. Isabel.
The new measures are more in line with insurance company calculations, rather than public health objectives, according to Dr. Isabel.
"We could undermine the fundamental principle that people will be treated the same, regardless of individual behaviors," he continued.
"One of the things that particularly worries us ... is this logic of focusing on the level of risk (in one's lifestyle). It opens the door to market logic in the health and social services system -- a logic used by private insurance companies,' Dr. Isabel said.
Moreover, Bonnier-Viger says Quebec should do more to mitigate the hospital network's vulnerability to strain.
"Is it really the 10 per cent of unvaccinated patients that explain the problems we are seeing at the moment? To ask the question is to answer it," he said.
Bonnier-Viger said he was never consulted on the measure during meetings with other regional directors, otherwise he would have given his opinion without hesitation.
“As far as I know, we were not consulted on this measure. If someone has decided to launch this measure in a press conference, even if he is the premier, it must be discussed."
--
The Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) supports the creation of original civic journalism that covers the diverse needs of underserved communities across Canada and is made available to CTV News The Canadian Press.
The LJI is funded by the federal government through Heritage Canada.
This article includes additional files from The Canadian Press, originally published in French on Jan. 12, 2021.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.