Medicare defenders roll out Trojan Horse

A five-metre tall, wooden Trojan Horse is travelling across Ontario, accompanied by representatives of the Ontario Health Coalition.

The pro-medicare lobby group composed of healthcare union members says the stunt is a reaction to the provincial Progressive Conservative party's idea of introducing public-private partnership (P3) hospitals to Ontario. Like the Greeks' equine "gift" in Homer's Iliad, P3 healthcare will wreak unexpected and total havoc on medicare, argues the Coalition.

The Coalition's website expounds on the statue's symbolism:

Like the fortified walls of ancient Troy, a powerful national consensus has so far protected public health care from attempts to privatize it. P3s are packaged to circumvent these poweful defenses by deception. A giant five metre Trojan horse representing the devious plans to privatize health care via the P3 model has been crossing Ontario, drawing attention to the Conservatives' privatization of health care by stealth and the McGuinty Liberals' weak position on the issue.

What does the public think of the giant, wooden statue parked on hospital lawns from Kenora to Kingston? The Sudbury Star reports:

Laurent Nault, who works at Sudbury Regional Hospital's Memorial site and is a chief steward with CUPE 1623, said public reaction to the Trojan horse and its message was good.

"We've got people honking their horns," he said. "People are fully aware of the Trojan horse story."

The campaign is intended to raise public awareness of threats to the public healthcare system in anticipation of the October 10 Ontario election. As they travel with the horse the Ontario Health Coalition is handing out pamphlets to local residents. "[H]opefully they will make their decision on the information," Nault told the Star. "We will give them the facts."

The Coalition might first want to check those facts. The Trojan horse never existed. Turns out Homer likely invented it to represent Troy's destruction by earthquake in 1250 BC. Poseidon was god of the seas as well as earthquakes, was often associated with horses, according to National Geographic in its exposé of the 2004 Brad Pitt film "Troy," which would explain where Homer got the idea.

The war and the huge, fake animal made for a better story, apparently.


Describing a healthcare policy as a Trojan Horse is nothing new:

• US Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards's healthcare platform includes a "laudable" Trojan Horse that could undermine private insurers' plans and introduce greater government-financed healthcare, wrote Timothy Noah of Slate last month.

• On the other side of the political spectrum, in 2005 an American blogger called then-Arkansas governor and current Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee's requirement to measure schoolchildren's BMI a Trojan Horse that could lead to wider, "intrusive" government involvement in healthcare.

• In California, Arnold Schwarzenegger's universal coverage plan was recently accused of being a Trojan Horse that would increase the price of health insurance premiums for families.

• Wal-Mart's announcement last year that it would participate in a "big employers" EHR plan is a "perfect" Trojan Horse that could improve American health delivery overall, wrote a University of California at Berkeley School of Information professor.

• And, last but not least, Ralph Klein himself is a Trojan Horse, according to a 2005 book put together by the University of Alberta's Parkland Institute.
  

First photo: Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal
Second photo: "Troy" movie still

Check out our website: www.nationalreviewofmedicine.com