Medicare Expansion in Canada

By Tom Cohen, Associated Press Writer
Friday, November 29, 2002; 9:12 AM

TORONTO —— A government-appointed commission has proposed the most sweeping upgrade of Canada's national health care system since its inception, including billions of dollars more to ensure equal access to free medical care.

The report, issued Thursday by former Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow, follows an 18-month, $10 million investigation that included public hearings across the country and studies on all aspects of the medicare system.

Romanow said the 30-year-old medicare system faced hard choices on whether to allow more private care that patients would pay for or to expand and strengthen the government-funded program.

He said bolstering medicare was the better choice because Canadians want a universal system instead of one that offers private services for the wealthy and public health care for the rest.

The report proposes increasing federal health care spending $2.3 billion next year, followed by successive annual increases of $3.2 billion and $4.2 billion.

That money would pay for more diagnostic services such as MRIs and CAT scans, bring home care into the national system, strengthen primary care, and cover some drug costs for patients with catastrophic illness.

"The new money that I propose investing in health care is to stabilize the system over the short term, and then to buy enduring change over the long term," Romanow said. "I cannot say enough that the status quo is not an option. If the result is simply more dollars for health care, then the time will have been wasted."

Like social security in the United States, Canada's health care system is a treasured but potentially endangered program because of the demands of an aging baby boomer generation.

The existing system is widely regarded as underfunded and inefficient, but one that generally meets Canadians' needs. Patients for elective surgeries and other non-emergency care face long waits, and many Canadians who can afford private care pay for what they need in the United States.

Private diagnostic clinics offering MRI and other specialized exams operate in some parts of the country. Some in the medical community and politicians want to expand private care to ease the financial burden on the government and lure more practitioners.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who created Romanow's commission, has said the government is committed to increasing funding for health care, which is administered in Canada by provincial governments. But Finance Minister John Manley said it won't be able to allocate as much money as Romanow recommends for next year.

© 2002 The Associated Press