Election 2008: What Happened to Health Care?

In 2002, the Romanow Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada was established to address ongoing issues that were facing our country’s public health care system. Cuts to health care spending by the federal government during the early 1990s had resulted in an overburdened health care system that did not have the resources to meet its patients’ needs. The groundbreaking report that came out of the Romanow Commission was entitled Building on Values: The Future of Health Care in Canada, and it gave recommendations to the federal and provincial governments on reforms that were needed to ensure Canada’s health care system remained free and accessible to all.

However, six years later, problems continue to plague our health care system. A chronic shortage of health professionals, long wait times for surgery, underfunded home and elder care, and high costs for some prescription drugs continue to create barriers for people to access the quality of care they need.

An Ipsos Reid poll conducted on September 17-18 found that, after the economy, health care was highest issue of importance to Canadians in the election so far, and ranked as the top issue of concern in Alberta and British Columbia. So why has there been so little mention of health care in this election? As citizens, we have a responsibility to communicate to our political leaders what issues we feel are most important. The quality of our health care system impacts nearly every Canadian at some point in their lives, and the subject deserves serious attention from our political leaders.

Stress on our health care system stems from a number of issues. Limited spaces in medical schools and residency programs have kept the number of graduating doctors relatively low in comparison to the Canadian population. A Canadian Community Health Survey found that, in 2007, 4.1 million Canadians did not have a family doctor. The survey also found that this trend impacted vulnerable and marginalized groups to a much greater extent: recent immigrants, the poor and young people were all more likely to not have a physician than the average Canadian.

A chronic shortage of doctors has led to long wait times for many procedures, from surgeries to simply seeing a doctor in an emergency room. This has resulted in those that can afford it seeking out private clinics where they will receive care more quickly. It has been argued that the availability of private health care can benefit the public system by reducing the length of the wait times. However, private clinics can pull badly needed resources away from the public system, creating longer wait times for those who cannot afford to use private care.

It is often said that the nature of a society is revealed in how the most vulnerable of its members are treated. A country’s health care system offers a good reflection of how a society treats its weakest members. Public justice calls us to care for the vulnerable and marginalized in our society and question barriers that prevent people from having equal access to their basic needs.

When you think about it, Canada’s healthcare system is one of the most redistributive social programs that our predecessors struggled to create, and for many, has become a symbol of the caring values this society cherishes. Canadian Christians were in the forefront of the provision of healthcare services, and have constantly advocated for the continuance and improvement of the public system. But still today, long waiting times, shortages of health care professionals and other barriers that make health care less accessible violate the right of people to live their lives with dignity.

A lack of access to adequate health care is detrimental to the well-being of families and communities across Canada. Our health care system must ensure that no one is left behind, and that people are cared for according to their need and not their income level. We must ensure our public health care system in Canada remains true to the core values of collective responsibility, equity and universality upon which it was founded.

These values could be undermined by those who seek to use health care as a commodity to be provided only for those who can afford it. Health care is a basic need that should not be bought or sold, but shared as a public good that benefits everyone in society.

The sustainability of our public health care system comes down to choices – choices about what kind of society we want to live in and how we value and care for one other. A public justice perspective views health care as a common good to be shared by all, not a privileged few. We must have an adequately funded health care system with enough medical professionals to ensure no one goes without quality care.

During this election, we must actively engage our political candidates in discussion and debate about issues such as health care that are important to our families and our communities. It is not enough to simply let the political parties in this campaign set the agenda of issues to be discussed. We must be advocates for the kind of society we want to live in, a society that seeks the common good and ensures that everyone has equal access to their basic needs.

Questions for Candidates:

• How does your party intend to ensure that qualityhealth care in Canada remains accessible to all?
• How does your party plan on addressing thecurrent shortage of health professionals in Canada?
• What does your party intend to do to ensure thatvulnerable and marginalized members of Canadian society receive qualityhealth care?
• Is your party committed to ensuring that healthcare in Canada will remain a public system and will not be privatized?

Links:

• Building on Values: the Future of Health Care in Canada by Roy J. Romanow
• In 2002, the Canadian Council of Churchesestablished a list of the most important public justice values that healthcare concerns present to Canadians and presented it to the RomanowCommission. Inspired by the document, Romanow included his version of aHealth Care Covenant as one of the first of the many recommendations inhis report. See the Canadian Council of Churches document, entitled A Health Care Covenant for All People in Canada.