May 07, 2004
Ottawa, Ontario

The Prime Minister’s Office today issued the following statement in response to a story in today’s Ottawa Citizen:

“Prime Minister Martin’s longtime family physician Dr. Sheldon Elman has offices in a downtown Montreal medical clinic, Medisys. Medisys is a medical clinic accessible to all members of the public. It provides services regularly to anyone with medical need. Indeed, INFO-SANTE, a publication of the Quebec government advertised the clinic as one available to the public in downtown Montreal. Dr. Elman has been the Prime Minister’s family doctor for over 20 years – predating the founding of the Medisys clinic.

While Medisys also provides executive health care services to individuals, Prime Minister Martin does not have an executive health care plan. Like any other Canadian, he uses his health card to pay for treatment provided by his doctor. Should he have need for other services such as physiotherapy, dentistry or blood tests (which under Quebec’s health care plan are not publicly insured), he relies on his employer-provided medical benefits plan – the same plan available to all Parliamentarians. He also has a medical benefits plan from his former company CSL Inc. but again, that does not include membership in an executive health care services plan.”