Senate takes its turn studying health care
CMA News 2000;10(3): 3
Almost three years to the day after the National Forum on Health released its final report examining the state of Canada's health care system, a Senate committee has decided to do it again.
Senator Michael Kirby and the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology will start its three-year study on the role of the federal government in the delivery of health care in Canada this month.
"We will begin by examining the fundamental principles upon which Canada's publicly funded health care system is based and then move systematically through five other stages to conclude with a firm set of policy recommendations," said Kirby who is chair of the senate committee. "As a result of this process the committee hopes to become the forum for an open and wide-ranging public debate on federal health care policy."
The Senate is the latest to wade into the health system fray, and uses much of the same language that the national forum did when it travelled the country in the early part of 1996. In fact, forum chair Dr. Tom Noseworthy invited Canadians to participate in a "wide-ranging discussion about Canada's health system" when he announced the project in November 1995, just as Kirby did five years later.
Some critics have questioned the need for yet another study examining health care in Canada, particularly one that includes six phases and will take three years. However, committee members maintain that another look at the system is needed, particularly considering the pressure on the federal government to strengthen it role in the system by transferring more tax money to the provinces to pay for health services.
The provinces have all pressed the federal government to replace the money cut from tax transfers for health care and other social programs, but Alberta Premier Ralph Klein and his Ontario counterpart, Mike Harris, have been the biggest thorns in the federal government's side.
"A balanced, responsible use of the federal budget surplus must include full restoration of Ottawa's cuts to health care, meaningful tax cuts that create jobs and debt reduction," Harris demanded last month as he outlined areas where he felt the federal government should spend in the budget released last week.
Klein's push to bring in legislation allowing the contracting out of some surgical services to private clinics has also raised the stakes in the provincial-federal health care game.
Three years ago, Noseworthy took physicians and other health care professionals to task for overstating the problems facing Canada's health care system when he released the national forum's final report saying "shame on you for saying there is a crisis in health care." The forum report stated that medicare could be preserved but "cannot continue under its present structure without compromising quality care and universal access." The forum made several recommendations on revamping the health care system including expanding medicare to cover home care and prescription drugs. The CMA was one of many groups that slammed the forum for underestimating the difficulties facing health care in Canada, warning the problems would only get worse.
The Senate study will begin hearing from witnesses this month.
| The Senate study will examine
|
 |
Send a letter to the editor Envoyez une lettre à la rédaction |
© 2000 Canadian Medical Association
