Canadian businesses are taking a leadership role in tackling the country’s health-care crisis, launching an ambitious research project next month aimed at redirecting the public debate over how to solve the problem.
The move represents a significant and unified step into the health-care breach, an acknowledgment that costs are unsustainable and an assertion that politicians have been unable to come to grips with the long-term nature of the challenges.
Some of the country’s biggest banks, insurers and other major companies are funding the project, called the Canadian Alliance for Sustainable Health Care, which will be unveiled next month by the Conference Board of Canada. While a number of think-tanks have latched onto the health file, the new group bills itself as the largest project on the topic, and it plans to issue about a dozen pieces of research in its first year.
The idea is to evaluate which ideas can best ensure that health-care costs don’t become unmanageable for taxpayers – and for corporations.
Health care has been the number one issue for Canadians during this election, according to polls. But Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said during an interview earlier in the campaign that “realistically there will be no serious discussion [on health care] this year anyway.”
“There are six or seven provincial elections this fall, I’m not sure if any of the provincial politicians are going to raise the issue,” he said on April 6. But he added that at some point, “somebody will take the lead on this.”
Although the money being committed to the new project is relatively small, at $1.6-million, the companies believe they can’t wait for government to fix the problem. The group has been working successfully to expand its roster to include hospitals and retiree groups, among others, to broaden its support.
Private sector groups see an opportunity to strike while the topic is hot and on the minds of Canadians.
“In my view, the medical system here is a total and utter mess,” said Bill Holland, executive chairman of mutual fund company CI Financial Corp., who has donated more than $46-million to Toronto-area hospitals, sometimes insisting that the money be used to reduce waiting times and improve efficiency.
Other corporate leaders are making moves as well. Fairfax Financial CEO Prem Watsa has had employees studying the health-care system, and potential fixes, on the company dime. “An open and honest debate about the future of health care in this great country of ours should be encouraged,” he said, adding that the keys are improving access, innovation and the value of each dollar spent.
While corporate Canada has a long history of philanthropic donations, executives – particularly on Bay Street, whose leaders have come to know health care intimately from seats on hospital boards – are finding an increasing appetite for their private-sector skills.
Don Drummond, former chief economist of Toronto-Dominion Bank and the man Ontario recently appointed to solve its fiscal mess, will deliver a lecture at Queen’s University on Friday, telling his audience that if they value health care they’d better start taking matters into their own hands.
“My lecture is basically saying, ‘Let’s grow up and we can actually do some things without government,’” he said. He intends to say that governments will only follow on this file, which is why it’s essential to broaden the field of engaged stakeholders. “Governments and companies are no longer willing to tolerate ever-rising health-care costs that impair their bottom lines,” Mr. Drummond will say.
