Health Care Could Become Unsustainable Says MP Carol Hughes
Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP Carol Hughes
The Parliamentary Budget Office released a report that explains the cost to eliminating the federal deficit in Canada, but it is not likely to please many Canadians, especially younger ones. According to the PBO the federal debt will be eliminated over the next 35 years, but the outlook isn’t so rosy for the provinces who are continually asked to shoulder more of the costs for things we take for granted, like healthcare.
While the prospect of balanced budgets and a low tax load may excite federal politicians, the risk of having Canada become a loose collection of provinces basically going it alone must be considered as an inevitable outcome. In a sense it becomes a shell game as expenses and the burden of service move from one level of government to another and the biggest expense that Canadians face are the costs associated with the delivery of healthcare.
One thing is certain, the provinces know this already. Coming out of the recent premiers meetings and faced with the prospect of finding more revenue to keep our healthcare system going, the provinces are asking the federal government to re-commit money in a way that it hasn’t in decades. They are asking Ottawa to shoulder 25% of the costs for the program which is nationally mandated and provincially administered.
In many ways it only makes sense. As the federal contribution has dwindled over the years, the government’s primary role in defining what healthcare is has not budged. At some point the moral authority is lost and the provinces will be reaching the tipping point soon if nothing is done.
Federally, the Conservatives have not made this an issue of importance and have pegged health care costs to the GDP – a move that will ensure the federal contribution dwindles further as time passes. This will coincide with an aging population as baby-boomers retire and require more from the health care system than it has ever delivered. Caught in the convergence are today’s younger Canadians who will be paying the costs, likely through greater taxation at the provincial level.
At some point the federal contribution will become so miniscule that provinces may decide they can no longer comply with the terms of the healthcare arrangement, but this is avoidable. Instead of pursuing the Conservative approach which virtually guarantees a withering federal commitment, we can at least maintain the 6 percent escalator which is what New Democrats are proposing. It will allow the federal government to remain a useful partner in the delivery of health care and won’t expose Canadians to the high cost of private health care.
Without a strong federal commitment the return of private, for-profit healthcare is a very real possibility. That is the trade-off for the myriad of boutique tax credits which sound great, but strain the ability of the government to do much of anything. It is a trade-off that threatens the future of health care at the time it will be needed the most. It amounts to handing off a country that is significantly worse than the one we were able to build up and enjoy. That’s just plain wrong.
