Ottawa’s Health Care Promise Viewed Carefully by Doctors

A promise by the federal health minister to uphold the Canada Health Act is being met with cautious optimism by doctors dedicated to universal health care.

Health Minister Jane Philpott addressed the country’s physicians at the Canadian Medical Association’s annual conference in Vancouver Tuesday.

The nearly 150-year-old organization has more than 83,000 members and is considered the voice of doctors in Canada.

Part of Philpott’s address to the room of 600 doctors included a promise to uphold the health act, which ensures accessibility to public health care for Canadians.

Some doctors and advocates are concerned that those wishing to operate private, user-pay clinics put the health act at risk.

But Philpott said the public doesn’t need to worry about a privatized health system taking over.

“I want you to know that our government is firmly committed to upholding the Canada Health Act,” Philpott told the room. “Its principles, that include accessibility and universality, are essential to the provision of care if it is our goal to have a fair and just society.”

She said that upholding the act is a key component to a strong middle class, and expressed concern about social inequality being a barrier to health care in Canada.

But the minister’s promise was greeted with some skepticism by Monika Dutt of Canadian Doctors for Medicare, a group formed in 2006 amid concerns of an increasing presence of private care in Canada.

Dutt said that private, for-profit clinics are already undermining the country’s single-payer health service.

She pointed to Ottawa’s silence on recent cases including Saskatchewan’s decision to allow private CT scans and clinics in Quebec charging fees in some cases.

Ottawa’s recent move for intervener status in a high-profile British Columbia court case where a private care clinic is challenging provincial health laws gives Dutt hope, but she said Philpott needs to show she isn’t just talking when she says the health act will be upheld.

“I really hope there will be clear followup other than generally saying ‘We’ll uphold the Canada Health Act’ (but) to actually act on that,” she said.

She said the challenges to the Canada Health Act are “worrisome.”

After her speech, Minister Philpott reiterated her stance to the media.

“Our government is committed to firmly upholding the Canada Health Act,” Philpott told reporters. “Canadians will have access to the care that they need, based on that need not based on their ability to pay.”

But what action Philpott could take was still not clear to Dutt.

“What does that mean in practice?” she asked of Philpott’s comments.

Meanwhile, Quebec doctor Clifford Blais said he’d like to see the Canada Health Act rewritten to allow doctors to accept private insurance.

Blais said he wants to move toward a system similar to Obamacare in the United States where, among other measures, the government subsidizes private health insurance.

“Why not a ‘Justincare’ here that would take care of all the hospital care?” he asked.

In Quebec, doctors are being paid even if they do nothing, Blais said, causing a backlog and a lack of access for poorer people to the system.

Meanwhile, he said, wealthy people head to the U.S. for treatment and pay for it.