Canada's Health System

CANADA’S HEALTH SYSTEM. JUNE 13, 2005


The following statements are from the central office of the Conservative Party of Canada dated June 9 2005.

“The Conservative Party supports the Canada Health Act, and our universally accessible publicly funded system.”

and further;

“ We respect the Charter, and the ruling made today by the Supreme Court of Canada. A Conservative government would take steps necessary to repair the damage done to Canada’s health care system by Paul Martin.”

The following headline is from the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal dated June 13 2005.
“Unsocialized Medicine - A landmark ruling exposes Canada’s health-care inequity.”

An excerpt “ The larger lesson here is that health care is not immune from the laws of economics. Politicians can’t wave a wand and provide equal coverage for all, merely by declaring medical care to be ‘right’.......”

Anyone who has been involved as a provider in Canada’s health system can or should be able to see that it has become a financial battleground for competing groups. The doctors, the nurses, the administrators and clerical and support workers. Even the politicians are involved, by choosing sides and trying to gain political points.

Health care in Canada suffers from nothing more than bad management.

Who controls or manages the money once it’s been budgeted? Who determines what resources are going to be purchased? Who gets what? Whose in charge of breakdowns? Who determines if more resources are required and for what reasons?

Like all forms of government sponsored social programs financed by tax dollars, they start with good intentions. Once the experts have delivered their expertise and left the program it soon becomes the target for all forms of criticism. The government in an effort to retain the voters’ confidence responds with more money and more experts. Gradually goals change or are moderated. Those permanently employed in the programs resist change. Debate inside and outside the program increases. More money is found to pacify selected “stakeholders”. Can the program collapse through inefficiency? No, too many careers are at stake. So the program staggers along. The government and the taxpayers move into a state of denial. Welcome to Canada’s health care system!