Which aspect of Canada's current medicare system most needs changing?
Mike McBane
Canadian Health Coalition
Our biggest priority for action is that we have to stop the commercialization of the system. If we continue to privatize and commercialize the delivery of health care we are basically going to jeopardize the principals that this system is built on - especially equity, but also affordability and quality.
The policy objective of the medicare system has to be social and not economic.
Dana Hanson
Canadian Medical Association
I think the biggest thing that needs changing today is the uncertainty Canadians have about their health-care system. They question whether or not it will be there for them in the future when they need it.
The other major thing that most needs changing is "health human resources," including doctors, nurses and other health-care specialists. The numbers are down, they're desperate. We know there are major concerns now and into the future.
Walter Robinson
Canadian Taxpayers Federation
We think the area that most needs change is the funding structure. Health care is funded for the most part as a pyramid scheme where we pay for tomorrow's surgeries and treatments out of today's tax collections. With an aging population and increasingly expensive treatments and medical equipment, we think that it is unsustainable. We think Canada should implement a pre-funded model as we see to a degree in public and private pension, where each generation saves for its own health-care needs over the span of a lifetime.
Sharon Sholzberg-Gray
Canadian Healthcare Association
We need a medicare system that provides timely access to a broader range of services.
Currently, the provinces provide different levels of services. There is a patchwork quilt on a broad range of services like access to home care, pharmacare and long-term care. Canadians don't have access to what they need and they don't always get it under our current system. They get more services in some provinces than others and that's where the problem is.