Duncan and Bachand were joined at a post-meeting news conference by the finance ministers from Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, who all blasted the new transfer arrangement.

He said tying health transfers to the nominal rate of economic growth starting in 2017-2018 effectively removes $21 billion from health care funding across Canada.

B.C. Finance Minister Kevin Falcon said he's happy with the five-year plan.

"The process that we saw today where the federal government comes and says this is our non-negotiable position simply is not the way to build a nation," he said.

53 per cent of those who took prescription medication for a chronic condition – and therefore would have recently used the services of a health-care professional such as a physician or pharmacist – feel the system is either in or heading to a state of crisis.

those users of the health-care system are less likely than others to believe that our system does a good job of caring for the health of the more vulnerable in society (55 per cent compared to 65 per cent of other Canadians) and less confident services will always be there when they need them (62 per cent compared to 69 per cent of other Canadians.)

Overall, Canadians still prefer their government-funded system, with 77 per cent of them saying so.

Of the G8 nations that took part in the survey, Canada was the only country where a majority (52 per cent) held a positive view of their health system.

for those Canadians who use the health system more frequently and have chronic medical conditions, solutions are more likely to rest with better management (63 per cent) rather than increased spending (31 per cent).

That contract with Alberta Health will grow as the needs grow for the senior.”

Eight private and public organizations beat out more than 60 applicants to share the funds, which will build nine projects across the province.

under the Affordable Supportive Living Initiative (ASLI).

1,815 seniors were waiting for continuing care placement.

union president Thérèse Duguay

Stultz eventually sat down with Duguay and a few other union representatives

the union and the Canadian Red Cross are currently in contract negotiations

The workers say that their contract, signed with the Canadian Red Cross and the department, is not being respected. Duguay says that there's a discrepancy within the transportation allowance. She says that they are only receiving 12 cents an hour for mileage and are asking the department to conduct an audit of the books of the Red Cross on such an allowance.

the Red Cross has not met a requirement of contracts with the Department of Social Development to give workers 75 per cent of transportation allowance money received from the department - the other 25 per cent covers program administration

base rate of $0.12 per hour but also $0.27 per kilometre

the reason for the split travel allowance is because it's not necessarily mileage travelled in a car and part of the care workers' job is to accompany the client to and from medical appointments and related events

the union has been in negotiations with its employer for better wages for almost 30 months

"When you compare this with people doing the same work in other provinces, the difference in wages is huge," she said. "For example, in 2008, in Nova Scotia, they received $15.62 an hour and in P.E.I., $19.19."

the NB Coalition for Pay Equity was supporting Duguay and the workers

Some provinces will be able to spend more on health care, others will bear a bigger burden of the aging population, others now have an opportunity to experiment with more private delivery.

there will now be an opportunity, as Canadian Medical Association president John Haggie puts it, “to identify how resources will be used to improve patient care across the country.”

Harper is inviting provinces, with some federal guidance, to do as they see fit in their own jurisdictions while inviting them to co-operate in establishing national benchmarks for delivering health services.

The West welcomes the certainty of the new model. It sees as a key victory the fact that Ottawa will allocate funds on a per capital basis rather than disproportionately favouring poorer provinces. The East calls the offer insufficient and an abuse of the federal-provincial process.

By offering money with no strings attached, Mr. Romanow said, richer provinces can experiment with new services – via public or private routes – that other provinces can’t afford.

The Conservatives decided on a unilateral approach several months ago, government sources said.

Officials identified three potential windows for releasing the new numbers. The first was Mr. Flaherty’s November fiscal update. But cabinet had not approved the new deal then. The second opportunity was Monday’s meeting of federal and provincial finance ministers. The Conservatives also contemplated holding off until January, when the premiers meet to discuss health care

Finance Canada documents said that the slower growth is because “governments are working to move health care funding to a balanced and sustainable path,” but a CIHI official said the institute can’t explain the one year drop, or whether it is a statistical blip.

Higgs also dismissed a report in a national newspaper that New Brunswick didn’t speak out against the federal government on Monday because the provincial government feared "retribution." Higgs said that's not true. He said the other provincial finance ministers organized a media scrum with reporters after he'd already left for the airport.

Nominal GDP is the monetary value of all goods and services produced within the country annually, including inflation. If nominal GDP rises four per cent and inflation is two per cent, the economy's real GDP growth is two per cent.

Howard Waldner, president and CEO of the Vancouver Island Health Authority

Hospitals are experimenting with “virtual” wards that provide follow-up care at home for patients with chronic medical conditions to lessen their chances of being re-admitted

How will it ensure federal funding leads to more doctors and nurses, better home care and more affordable prescription drugs?"

During the recent federal election campaign, in their 66-page platform the Conservatives devoted nine paragraphs - about three-quarters of a page - to renewing the Health Accord.

since what she has to say isn’t tied to the money, there is little incentive for provincial counterparts to take her seriously

The funding in the last 10-year federal-provincial health accord was used, to some success, to reduce surgical wait times.

Six per cent a year is unsustainable. The provinces’ budgets would eventually be swallowed by Medicare. All that cash was the wrong kind of “fix” – it induced reliance, not change.

Menzies acknowledged this has resulted in "some complaints from Alberta all along, but they had signed the deal."

some net improvement in what that transfer looks like

Over the next decade, we anticipate major technological advances that will improve the quality of care

with restricted funding, those who could get those benefits will be those who can pay out of pocket. The result will be two-tiered health care.

Process matters in federal-provincial relations. A federation is about rules and process. In this case, why does it matter? Because federal involvement in health care is necessary and can be achieved only with co-operation. Even if one rejects the use of the federal spending power to influence health-care delivery, the federal government holds many levers that affect health-care costs directly.

It also exercises many responsibilities that affect health outcomes. Here are important examples. The federal government regulates the marketing of drugs. What could it do to contribute to cost control in that area? Are there ways the federal government could use its considerable health research dollars to support health-care reforms? As the Canadian population ages, the use of health technology will cost more. Here again, the federal government has some jurisdiction. What about health costs and health outcomes for first nations?

Co-operation in these areas might be more fruitful than in areas where the federal comparative advantage is not strong.

André Juneau, director of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations at Queen’s University, is a former federal deputy minister

The hard truth about health policy, acknowledged by anyone who works in the field, is that it’s largely about rationing care.

To spend on a rare procedure that could save a single life, for instance, might mean quietly not spending on something else that could spare a dozen.

other types of federal financial support for health care, particularly innovative initiatives, might be possible.

there are opportunities for Saskatchewan to negotiate some additional funding for innovation ... That's what we'll be working toward."

The Saskatchewan government is preparing its own proposal around extra funding for innovation in health care, he noted, pointing out "we've seen flexibility from the federal government on other files." That's partly why he isn't joining other premiers in sounding the alarm, he said.