A public health\u002Dcare system that was already straining before the pandemic is now visibly coming apart
For Mayor Craig Copeland, attracting new physicians has been a challenge for all of his six terms in office. His community has 15,000 people, and rural areas outside town count for another 15,000, meaning 30,000 people rely on the Cold Lake Healthcare Centre.
In Toronto, the University Health Network manages three of the GTA’s largest hospitals with more than 1,200 beds and nearly 18,000 staff. It’s all shaping up into an inevitable showdown over who will pump more money into the system. The provinces say their health systems are on fire, and they’re focusing their efforts on fighting Ottawa over who will pay for the water. The federal government, meanwhile, appears to be cool to the idea of spending more, and is looking to take more control over the way provinces deliver health care. In the meantime, the blaze keeps spreading.
“We are often operating well above 100 per cent of funded occupancy and we have a very tired workforce,” Smith said. Premiers have been waiting for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sit down with them to hash out a new health-care deal, but he has insisted he won’t until the pandemic is over, and he has set no date for any talks. When the premiers meet in Victoria, B.C. this week, they’re expected to try to pressure Trudeau again to open discussions. It will likely be in vain: Sources in the government don’t see Trudeau accepting at least until after the Quebec election in October.
In March, Duclos announced a one-year top up of $2 billion to help provinces clear backlogs and also made clear the feds have views on where federal dollars should be spent going forward. Still, Canada’s premiers say they’re being asked to shoulder even more than that. They calculate that Ottawa pays just 22 per cent of health-care costs today, with the number set to fall even further over the next couple of years. The Liberals insist it’s higher, counting tax points transferred in 1977, where the federal government agreed to lower taxes so provinces could raise their own taxes for health-care revenues.
“Canada’s biggest challenge isn’t that we don’t spend enough on health care,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said, when she was asked about health-care transfers after tabling her latest budget. “We actually spend quite a bit compared to peer countries and we spend quite a bit on health care compared to peer countries who get better outcomes than we do.”Article content
Central to the Liberals’ looming argument with the provinces is the idea they have better ideas for how health systems should be run. Di Matteo said given the feds have no experience actually running hospitals, it will be hard for them to make that case. Martinuk said the U.S. system is clearly not one that should be emulated, but it’s worth looking at other systems that allow more private-sector participation, while maintaining universal coverage.Article content
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