Get ready to offer up your opinion on how to reform Canada's health-care system.
Another high-profile group is putting together a big-name panel to consult the public, health-care professionals and experts — and then offer recommendations for reform.
The Canadian Nurses Association is devoting a year to its national commission, which will be co-chaired by health-law expert Maureen McTeer.
It follows efforts by other groups, such as the Canadian Medical Association, that are also holding hearings and doing detailed research.
McTeer said the flurry of consultations and task forces reflects a growing frustration over the lack of government-led discussion about how to renew the health-care system once the national funding arrangement expires in 2014.
Canadians want to talk about how to improve the system, how to pay for it, and what should be covered by medicare, she said.
McTeer recognizes that handing the federal and provincial governments a stack of task-force recommendations from a diverse range of groups will not be effective. That's why the various groups hope to pool their results and hash out a consensus of some kind early next year, she said.
“This is a process whose time has come. We know that the system that we have now not only has gaps, but Canadians also see those gaps.”
Among the top issues are: caring for an aging population, home care, the rising use and cost of drugs, long-term care, access to health professionals, and solid treatment for chronic disease.
“All of these questions affect the public in a real way, day in and day out, and they want answers,” McTeer said.
She said she believes the public is willing to look at other ways of funding and delivering health care, even if it means considering the co-payments that characterize some European systems.
“Canadians also have to accept ... that we must be willing to accept other models of funding as well.”
The 10-year funding arrangement between Ottawa and the provinces comes to an end in 2014. Since such agreements usually take years to hammer out, officials have begun low-level talks about the future.
Their efforts were overtaken by the recent election campaign. The Conservatives promised in the middle of the campaign that they would extend the annual six per cent increase in funding by at least another two years — neutralizing the debate on financing for now.
But the Conservatives have not yet explained whether there will be strings attached to that funding, or how they plan to go about pursuing negotiations with the provinces.
