It's Not the Economy, Stupid
Jan 27, 2011
A recent poll suggests that Canadians believe that Ottawa’s focus should be on health care and not the economy.
The Canadian Medical Association-sponsored Ipsos Reid survey found that 68 percent of respondents “reject the idea that the federal government’s focus on the economy justifies delaying discussions to renew the health accord with the provinces.”
The accord ends in 2014 and it appears that the federal government is making little progress in negotiations with the provinces. Although 80 percent of poll respondents were unaware of the 2014 deadline, once they became aware of it, 88 percent said that negotiations between Ottawa and the provinces should begin immediately.
As has been pointed out time and again, health care expenditures are becoming an increasingly large and onerous portion of provincial budgets. Unless measures are introduced to control this growth, it’s possible that health care will overwhelm provincial budgets in the next 15 to 20 years.
In terms of improvements to the system , poll respondents indicated that the debate should not be restricted by money, funding arrangements or predetermined budgets. Rather, “patient needs should guide what health-care services are available.” But, given the increasingly large portion of budgets being consumed by health care, cost does unfortunately have to be a factor that is considered.
Maclean’s magazine has just undertaken a series of town hall discussions across the country under the heading of “Health Care in Canada: Time to Rebuild Medicare.” And in a new article discussing the state of health care in Canada, it certainly paints a bleak picture. Citing a variety of studies from organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Health Council of Canada and the Commonwealth Fund, it argues that our system is not really as great as we think it is: our costs are middle of the pack, we rank fairly low on quality of life indicators, and we’re very poor when it comes to timeliness of care.
Whatever perspective one comes from, it is very hard to disagree with the Ipsos Reid respondents. The economy is of crucial importance, but figuring out how to manage health care and budget for it for the next ten or 20 years is absolutely essential.
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