Group items tagged

The official Conservative election platform actually included no mention of the 6% escalator, but in a news release sent out 17 days later, the Conservative campaign referenced the promise three times.

A re-elected Conservative Government will build on our strong record of protecting Canada’s universal health-care system by increasing funding for health care by 6 per cent per year

Reelected on May 2, the Conservatives then wrote the 6% promise into the Speech from the Throne.

the feds will put up $27 billion this year through the Canada Health Transfer. By 2017, when the deal ends, the annual transfer will have grown to $36 billion.

A six per cent escalator for the feds translates into an increase of just 0.8 per cent in Alberta and 1.4 per cent in Quebec for next year. That’s because the federal role in medicare has been dramatically scaled back over time.

Today the federal cash transfer for health covers 21 per cent of what the provinces and territories spend on public healthcare.  Across the provinces the federal share ranges from 12.6 per cent  (Alberta) to 23.8 per cent (Quebec).

Expenditure Need: Equalization’s Other Half is the first paper in a Mowat Centre series exploring options for reforming the Canadian transfer system.

It argues that the current approach to Equalization turns a blind eye to the differences in expenditures that provinces must make to provide comparable levels of public services.

The paper shows that incorporating these differences can make Equalization fairer and less costly. It also highlights Ontario’s unique position—the province has both higher than average expenditure needs and lower than average revenue raising capacity. The paper demonstrates that adopting an expenditure need based approach to equalization would come closer to fulfilling the federal government’s Constitutional obligation to ensure that provinces have the fiscal capacity to provide their residents with comparable levels of services at comparable levels of taxation.

The equalization program is redistributing $15.4 billion in federal tax dollars this year to every province but British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland.

The formula is based on the Trudeau-era constitutional amendment requiring that Canadians get ``reasonably comparable levels of public services'' funded by ``reasonably comparable levels'' of provincial taxation.

But the report from Peter Gusen, former director of federal-provincial relations at the federal Department of Finance, said the current system is flawed because it considers only a province's ``fiscal capacity'' to raise revenues.That means factors that have a huge influence on funding services - like wage costs or the relative age of a population - aren't considered.

MEDICARE SUSTAINABILITY:FACTS & MYTHS

M.P. Breakfast Briefing & Press ConferenceHouse of Commons, Ottawa, June 17, 2010

Canadians are being told that public health care financing is not sustainable, and that the solution is a shift to more private health insurance and private delivery of services. Canada’s pre-eminent health economist Robert G. Evans, O.C., Ph.D., presented the facts and debunked the myths, and renowned pollster Nik Nanos reviewed the numbers.

What is the health accord?  What is at risk when it ends in 2014?  What do Canadians need in the next accord, and what are CUPE and our allies doing to move us there?

A new report from a federal spending watchdog concludes the Conservative government's changes to health funding will ultimately download billions of dollars in medical costs annually to the provinces

The office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer released a report Thursday highlighting the extent to which provincial governments will increasingly struggle to balance their books and pay for health care in the coming years, partly due to the federal Conservative government's decision to trim the growth in health transfers to the provinces.

will leave the provinces with a significant "fiscal gap" that will force them to either increase taxes or cut programs

December 20, 2013   |   Volume 17 Issue 49 Canada Health Transfer formula shift angers Ontario

Ontario is crying foul over a change in the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) formula effective 2014-15 which allocates the money on a strict per capita basis.

Mar 12 2014

During the 2011 federal election, the federal Liberals ran a poll on their website asking Canadians to choose their favourite anti-medicare quote from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Although it’s the social program most cherished by Canadians, universal health care has been under attack from both Liberal and Conservative governments almost from its inception.

In a striking about-face from her predecessor’s hands-off approach to medicare, the new federal Health Minister, Rona Ambrose, is promising an era of leadership and co-operation to ensure that the publicly funded health system is sustainable and affordable.

Ms. Ambrose said the way to improve the system is to make it more efficient and cost-effective by investing in innovation and research.

“Innovation is very important when it comes to the long-term sustainability of our health-care system,” she said.

Stratford Beacon-Herald Thu Apr 24 2014

The 2004 federal-provincial health accord recently completed its 10-year run, and expired on schedule. Though heralded at the time of its signing as a landmark agreement that would solve many of the wait times issues plaguing Canada's health-care system, in retrospect it achieved very little and was very expensive to boot. And yet, some misguided news commentators, ex-premiers, and celebrities lamented its demise. These voices were reinforced by a series of nationwide protests, organized by groups like the Canadian Health Coalition, that were designed to scare Canadians into thinking that the expiration of the 2004 health accord will lead to a collapse of Canada's health-care system. Of course, it means nothing of the sort. The Canada Health Act remains fully intact and continues to set the terms and conditions that dictate transfer payments from the federal government to the provinces for health care, . i.e. public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability, and accessibility. The 2004 health accord simply specified that the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) -the major federal funding transfer to the provinces for health -would grow at 6%annually for 10 years until 2014.

04/17/2014

The 2004 federal-provincial health accord recently completed its 10-year run, and expired on schedule. Though heralded at the time of its signing as a landmark agreement that would solve many of the wait times issues plaguing Canada's healthcare system, in retrospect it achieved very little and was very expensive to boot. And yet, some misguided news commentators, ex-premiers, and celebrities lamented its demise. These voices were reinforced by a series of nationwide protests (organized by groups like the Canadian Health Coalition) that were designed to scare Canadians into thinking that the expiration of the 2004 health accord will lead to a collapse of Canada's healthcare system. Of course, it means nothing of the sort. The Canada Health Act remains fully intact and continues to set the terms and conditions that dictate transfer payments from the federal government to the provinces for health care, .i.e. public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability, and accessibility. The 2004 health accord simply specified that the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) -- the major federal funding transfer to the provinces for health -- would grow at six per cent annually for 10 years until 2014.

The independent office responsible for assessing the country's finances says limits imposed by the federal Conservative government on increases to health transfers will eventually make it impossible for provinces and territories to handle the costs of an aging population.

"Subnational governments cannot meet the challenges of population aging under current policy," the PBO said.

With an aging population requiring medical care, the PBO report says health-care costs will increase significantly as a share of the GDP and the lower levels of government will be forced to foot an increasing share of the bill.

Campbell River Mirror Tue Sep 15 2015

It is extremely concerning that our provincial government is contracting up to 55,000 surgeries to a private surgery clinic Re: Deal with private contractor could reduce surgery wait times - J.R. Rardon. The above noted article was in the Aug. 26, Campbell River Mirror. Reading the headline I have to ask "but at what cost?"

It is extremely concerning that our provincial government is contracting up to 55,000 surgeries to a private, for profit, surgery clinic which is yet to be built. If this company is locating in Victoria they must have received assurance for long term commitments to enable them to locate there permanently. Surgical Centres Ltd. is "based" in Calgary, they have two private, for profit, surgery clinics in Calgary, two in B.C., two in Saskatchewan. Are the owners American?

Vancouver Sun Thu Feb 19 2015

The federal government deducted a little more than $500,000 from transfer payments to B.C. over the last two years as a penalty for extra-billing charges patients paid at private or public hospitals and diagnostic clinics. User fees for medically necessary, government-insured treatments contravene the federal Canada Health Act and provincial statutes.

To discourage the extra charges, the federal government requires provinces to submit statements of the fees paid by patients. The latest annual Health Canada report (2012-13) shows $280,019 was deducted from B.C.'s Canada Health Transfer payments for that year.

Oct 18, 2016

As health ministers from across Canada meet with the federal health minister to discuss a new Health Accord, CUPE calls on the federal Liberal government to step up and ensure adequate funding for hospitals and health care in Canada by boosting the Canada Health Transfer (CHT).