Dateline: 01/16/06
With rising costs, concern over wait times for medical procedures, and a continual federal-provincial tug-of-war over funding, health care continues to be a dominant issue in Canadian federal elections. Here's what the major Canadian federal parties are promising in the 2006 Canadian federal election campaign.
Liberal Party on Health Care
The Liberals support a publicly funded health care system with universal access.- They have guaranteed that health transfers to the provinces will grow by six percent each year for the next 10 years.
- As a result of the 2004 Federal-Provincial Health Accord, the provinces have agreed to benchmarks for wait times for priority medical procedures.
- The Liberals are promising a Canada Health Care Guarantee, which includes $300 million to increase capacity in teaching hospitals to reduce wait times; $50 million to speed up wait list management; $10 million to Canadian Institutes for Health Research for development of future wait list benchmarks; 10 million for patient-management programs for doctors for wait list management and to help patients navigate the health care system; and $75 million for a Health Care Guarantee Fund to help patients with travel costs to receive treatment in another province.
- The Liberals are promising to invest $100 million over 5 years to bring 1000 new family doctors on stream.
- The Liberals will put $300 million over five years into a new National Cancer Strategy.
- The Liberals propose the establishment of a Canadian Mental Health Commission for information, knowledge exchange and public awareness, in cooperation with provinces and other stakeholders.
- The Liberals would also invest nearly $700 million into a Public Health Strategy to bolster the public health system, including support for new vaccine programs and preparedness for infectious diseases.
- The Liberals plan to provide $500 million in new support to assist Canadians with disabilities.
Conservative Party on Health Care
The Conservatives support "a mix of private and public health care delivery, as long as health care remains publicly funded and universally accessible."- The Conservatives say they would continue to implement the 2004 Federal-Provincial Health Accord.
- The Conservatives plan to work with the provinces to establish a Patient Wait Times Guarantee so that Canadians can receive essential medical treatment within acceptable wait times or be treated in another jurisdiction,
- They will work with the provinces to develop comprehensive plans for cancer, mental illness and heart disease, including implementing a $26-million five-year Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control.
- The Conservatives plan to immediately compensate all those who contracted hepatitis C from tainted blood.
- The Conservatives propose improving access to natural and complementary health products and supplements.
- The Conservatives plan to introduce a National Disability Act to promote reasonable access to medical care, medical equipment, education, employment, housing and transportation for people with disabilities.
Bloc Québécois on Health Care
The basic position of the Bloc Québécois is that health care should be completely under provincial control, and the federal government should increase the federal transfer of funds to Quebec.
NDP on Health Care
The NDP want to stop the "creeping privatization" of health care in Canada and improve public health care.- The NDP propose a Protection of Public Health Care Act. Through the legislation and agreements with the provinces, the NDP would make stable, long-term federal transfers for health care contingent on a commitment that the money would not be used for a profit-making insurance system covering medically necessary services.
- The NDP support investment in long-term care for seniors, starting with an expansion of 10,000 units in 2006 to a total of 40,000 new units by 2009.
- The NDP would work with the provinces and territories to phase in a national prescription drug program, beginning with coverage for key catastrophic drugs.
- They would phase out the evergreening of patent drugs so cheaper generic drugs could come to market sooner, and would also ban direct-to-consumer advertising for pharmaceuticals.
- The NDP would increase the coverage for home care.
- The NDP propose the establishment of a Health Care Provider Training Fund, with a goal of adding 16,000 health care providers to the system, especially nurses and nurse practitioners.
- The NDP would also introduce the Canadians With Disabilities Act at the earliest opportunity.
