In 2014, the Canada Health Accord needs to be renegotiated. The last time it was negotiated was in 2004, when it was set that the government would increase the transfer payments to the provinces by 6% per year for the next ten years. With 2014 growing ever close, healthcare was a big topic during the recent federal election. While on the campaign trail, every major political party promised that, should they be elected, they would maintain the 6% per year increase in transfer payments to the provinces for health care spending.
Apparently, the Conservatives felt that, like so many other election campaign promises, this one wasn’t worth worrying about actually keeping. Rather than the usual round of negotiations with the provinces, the Federal Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, announced that the 6% per year increases will continue until 2017, and then further increases will be tied to the GDP, at a minimum of 3%. The Federal Government says that this is not negotiable, and did not consult the provinces at all, even though they are the ones who are responsible for providing healthcare, and are therefore the most knowledgeable about the costs of maintaining it. The provincial premiers went to a conference which, they thought, was for the opening talks of negotiations, and were instead presented with a fully laid out, non-negotiable, plan. There was no warning that the Federal Government would make such an unprecedented and unexpected move.
Now, let’s think about tying healthcare payments to the GDP. As we have seen in the recent past, recessions happen, people lose their jobs, and the GDP goes down. It doesn’t make sense to reduce the amount of healthcare funding when people are in difficult circumstances, and less able to pay for their own care. Do we really want the health care funding to be jeopardized in the same situations where unemployment is rising, and people are less able to care for themselves? Quality of care should be the first priority. Reducing care just to cut costs is unacceptable. If the government is so desperate to save money, why don’t they stop buying fighter jets and building jails? Surely a strong public health care system is of more use to a society than the ability to wage war and throw more people in jail.
This also has a profound impact on the province’s ability to plan. With no set amount of money coming in, how can a hospital decide if they can afford to hire more doctors, or increase the number of beds? The health care system is already plagued by long waiting times and doctor shortages. Unpredictable funding, with smaller increases, will only serve to make these problems worse.
When the provincial premiers met to discuss their response to the Federal Government’s choice to decree, rather than negotiate the funding for the next Health Accord, Harper’s response was to tell them to “put the funding issue aside” as there was no chance of the decision changing. The premiers have publically stated that they are hopeful that things can change before 2014, but with a majority Conservative government, it may be difficult to put enough pressure on them to force that change.
Canadians across party lines say that the health care system is one of the most important things about being Canadian. Harper will sacrifice the integrity of this program, which cares for the health of all of us, in his attempt to balance the books at any cost.
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