> Marco Anglesio wrote:
>
> > While it's certainly a good thing that free and universal health care is a
> > sacred cow of the canadian electorate,
>
> But isn't the health care system being slowly gutted by budget cutbacks?
Yes and no. There's a rather complicated history there as to who is responsible and whose cutbacks.
Prior to 1995, the federal government made three major transfers of money to provincial governments. One was for universal health care, one was for post-secondary education, and a third was for welfare/social assistance.
A little history, now. The Canada Health Act, which was passed in the 1960's under Pearson, guarantees universal health care to a certain standard. In order to get the provinces to agree to this (Saskatchewan already had implemented universal health care earlier that decade, which resulted in a physicians' strike), the federal government agreed, but *didn't pass into law*, that it would pay half the tab and the provinces would pay the other half. However, health care would remain a matter of provincial jurisdiction, and there you have the root of the problem.
In 1995, the federal government lumped the three major transfers, mentioned above, into one: the Canada Health and Social Transfer. (This was rather controversial at the time. I stayed up late to watch the budget that evening - and for a house full of male university students to stay up late to watch the budget, it has to be important). They proceeded to cut the CHST back.
However, the provinces retained jurisdiction over these three areas. They have coped with the cutbacks in various ways. Some provinces have cut back health care, some welfare, some post-secondary education, and some all three. The two largest provinces, Ontario (where I live) and Quebec, cut all three. Ontario also cut taxes to curry favour with the electorate. Quebec has been suffering from subpar growth and high deficits since the 1970's.
> My mother complains regularly now about the long waits in getting tests
> and other medical service.
I'm not sure what tests your mother uses, but I find that I'm quite well served, when I am served. The longest delay for services that I've had was a four week wait for elective surgery.
There is a chronic shortage of high-tech testing equipment, such as those used to perform MRIs and CAT scanners, but that's more a consequence of a lack of capital in the system.
There is also a shortage of physician specialists. However, this is not really a Canadian flaw - it's because US boards accept Canadian medical certification, and vice versa, so mid-career Canadian physicians can easily go south for a bigger paycheque.
> One way to wean the electorate off universal
> health care would be to cut its budget to the point where it meets basic
> expectations less and less frequently.
Canadians are complaining loudly about the system, but ninety-odd percent of them are satisfied with how the system treats them. So there's a real difference between their perception of the system and their perception of service. I admit to feeling the same way, though - I fear for the system despite the fact that I presently feel well served by it.
The most conspicuous failure, to the consumer, is the periodic unavailability of emergency room space. This is bad in the Toronto area. There just isn't enough capacity in the system, since many emergency rooms were cut back or cut entirely, to deal with spikes in demand. However, you can trace this to total mismanagement by the Tory government: they cut ER's and planned to replace them with ambulant clinics (as Quebec does quite successfully), but they cut the ER's before building the clinics. Most of the spikes occur during flu season as well, and flu-related visits are easily preventable as a public health measure.
There is also a big shortfall when it comes to inpatient mental health services, but again, that's a lack of planning, closing the inpatient services without creating the outpatient ones.
Marco
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> Marco Anglesio | Style and structure are the essence of <
> mpa at the-wire.com | a book; great ideas are hogwash. <
> http://www.the-wire.com/~mpa | --Nabokov <
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