Yahoo Movies Prime Minister Trudeau 'missed a historic chance’ to change healthcare: Canadian doctors, experts react to $196B investment
Canadians wonder where the actual investment in healthcare will end up if provinces are in charge of the funds
Provinces and Territories will have $196.1 billion to work with over 10 years in healthcare funds, which includes $46.2 billion in new support. The deal is being presented by the federal government as a generational fix to a system that’s languishing, as hospitals and medical practices across the country continue to face challenges like increased wait times and staffing shortages.
Ottawa laid out the proposed healthcare deal on Tuesday, but was ultimately met with an underwhelming reaction from premiers.
Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson, who heads the Council of the Federation, which represents the group of premiers, said they were disappointed with what was presented and would take time to assess the plan. Ontario Premier Doug Ford described the healthcare funding plan as a “starting point”.
On social media, reaction to Ottawa’s healthcare plan was mixed. Some felt it failed to address some of the pressing issues, like lack of staffing and improved working conditions.
In treating health care as a fiscal problem, Mr. Trudeau misses an historic chance to shape reform. In failing to address their exodus, he will demoralize nurses. In ignoring private delivery, he lets federal transfers buy fewer services of inferior quality. Very disappointing pic.twitter.com/3tDeVpz9Dg
— MichaelHurleyCUPE (@HurleyOCHUCUPE) February 8, 2023
To stabilize and rebuild our health systems, we need a focus on the hard problems:
- pan Canadian licensure
- team based care instead of siloed care
- improving working environments for providers
Hope we're focused on the hard problems today.https://t.co/yc55J4Nt6x— Dr. Alika Lafontaine MD (@AlikaMD) February 7, 2023
💯 I haven’t spoken to a single person yet that doesn’t want assurances that the tax dollars allocated for health care are actually going to healthcare. It feels like we’re at a crossroads, and how these dollars are spent will have a lasting impact on how care is delivered. https://t.co/5f36z20sQ1
— TL Gibson (@TLGibson5) February 8, 2023
One columnist pointed out that a similar move was made in 2004, by then-Prime Minister Paul Martin, which doesn't appears to have made much of a difference.
Trudeau gov't saying it has a 10-year plan to fix health care means little without major reforms in how provinces deliver it. In 2004, then PM Paul Martin announced a 10-year, $41-billion plan, to slash wait times & give Cdns better access to primary care, same problems as today.
— Lorrie Goldstein (@sunlorrie) February 7, 2023
If Justin Trudeau thinks Doug Ford is violating the Canada Health Act by his plan to use private clinics to provide public health care services to patients, where the province is the sole payer, he can reduce federal health care funding to Ontario on a dollar for dollar basis.
— Lorrie Goldstein (@sunlorrie) February 7, 2023
Bandaid solutions are expensive and just kicks the problems down the road. We need transformational changes that are in line with Canada Health Act, with access and universality at its core. It’s what Canadians want and expect.
— Nick Capra (@nickcapra_gpc) February 7, 2023
How about a 10-year freeze on hiring health care bureaucrats. Any new money has to go to front-line workers and equipment. It would be a start.
— Deep Green Sea (@polymictic) February 7, 2023
This is great. But what a lot of us would like is an accounting of the billions of $ given to the provinces during the pandemic that some of them "lost track of". Already they are complaining that you haven't given them enough. Do an audit of what where that (OUR) $ went.
— lanamy01 (@cochraf) February 8, 2023
The proposed finances include conditions that would require provinces to invest their own finances into health care. The funding would start by giving provinces and territories an unconditional boost to the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) to target what Ottawa calls "immediate pressure on the health-care system, especially in pediatric hospitals, emergency rooms and surgical and diagnostic backlogs."
