Plan Upholds Principles of Canada Health Act; Rejects Private, Parallel System
This morning in Winnipeg, Stephen Harper and health critic Steven Fletcher announced that a Conservative government will work with provinces to develop a Health Care Guarantee that ensures patients receive essential medical treatment within clinically acceptable waiting times.
“There will be no private, parallel system,” Mr. Harper said. “We can, and will, achieve better results for patients and maintain the essentials of our system of public health insurance while maintaining our universal public health care system.”
Since the Liberals took power, the average waiting time for treatment has almost doubled, to 18 weeks and 1.2 million Canadians don’t have a family doctor.
A Conservative government will:
- Work with the provinces to develop a
Patient Wait Times Guarantee to ensure that all Canadians receive essential medical treatment within clinically acceptable waiting times.
- Comply with the principles of the Canada Health Act.
- Treat all patients equally for essential health care services, regardless of ability to pay.
- Increase the number of doctors and nurses by working with the provinces and territories to expand educational programs for health care professionals.
Protecting public health care is a difficult and challenging task. Paul Martin likes to talk about a quick fix for a generation. Canadians now know there’s no such thing as a quick fix for health care.
A Conservative government will deliver timely access to quality health care services regardless of ability to pay. Only a new Conservative government will give Canadians a
Patient Wait Times Guarantee.
