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The Interim Report of the Romanow Commission
February 6, 2002
We welcome the interim report of the Romanow Commission.
The themes of the report - values, funding, quality, access, and leadership -
will be useful in guiding the nation-wide consultations the Commission will
undertake with all Canadians on options for the future. And we encourage
Canadians to become involved.
We look forward to the advice and recommendations that will flow from this
national dialogue.
We are committed to ensuring that our health care system is sustainable and
remains true to the principles of the Canada Health Act.
While the consultations proceed, we will continue to work cooperatively with
the provinces and territories, health care providers and health care users on
health care reform and renewal.
We all have the same goal – to ensure that Canadians have access to timely
and high-quality health care.
Indeed, we are pressing ahead on issues that need attention now.
In September 2000, we achieved unanimous agreement on a Health Action Plan -
a plan with funding and a blue print to address short and medium term health
care issues.
Under the Plan we made $18.9 billion in new health care funding available to
the provinces. And another $2.3 billion was allocated for medical equipment like
MRI machines, information technology and primary health care reform.
This funding that was fully protected in Budget 2001 despite the economic
slowdown and will see the federal contribution to health care reach an all-time
high.
We've also taken steps with our provincial and territorial partners to
improve pharmaceutical management, so that drugs covered by public benefit plans
deliver top therapeutic benefits in the most cost-effective way.
We've made investments in electronic health records and tele-health, that
will help health care teams deliver better care and improve care in remote and
rural regions.
And this September, governments across Canada will for the first time report
to citizens about health system performance using a set of common indicators - a
concrete step toward more accountability to Canadians for how health budgets are
spent.
The findings of the Romanow Commission will help us address medium and
long-term challenges in a way that ensures all Canadians have access to the high
quality health care that is their right.
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