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Doug Watt
(October 1, 2002) The much-anticipated final report of the Romanow commission on Canada’s healthcare system will reinforce the public medicare system and reject two-tier privatization, predicts Stephen Lewis, the UN’s special envoy to Africa on HIV/AIDS.
Lewis said he’s optimistic that politicians will pay attention to the report, due in November, and implement its main recommendations. Lewis is Canada’s former ambassador to the UN.
“Everything lies with Romanow,” Lewis said yesterday during a healthcare town hall at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors in Ottawa. “He will be the benchmark for the next generation.”
Former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow heads the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada. The royal commission is mandated to engage Canadians in a dialogue about the healthcare system and then recommend measures to ensure the sustainability of a universally accessible, publicly funded health system.
Lewis predicts Romanow’s report will also recommend improvements in primary health systems, such as community clinics and group practices. And he expects that Romanow will recommend adding drug costs and home care to the publicly insured part of the system. This prediction was supported by Michael Decter of the National Board of the Canadian Institute for Health, another participant in the town hall discussion.
“There is a larger private role in drug coverage than there is a public role, which I think is a disgrace,” Decter said, adding there’s a “great deal of rhetoric” on the privatization issue.
“It’s an absolute waste of time and energy to debate whether the private sector has a role [in healthcare],” said Rob Brown of the Institute of Insurance and Pension Research.
“The private sector already pays 30% of the costs,” Brown told the town hall. “The debate should be how do we decide what is publicly paid for and how we decide what is left to the private sector.”
Figuring that out will require better access to data, Brown said, followed by a cost-benefit analysis. “Anything where you don’t get a bang for your buck should be allowed through private payment.”
But Lewis believes Romanow will reject greater privatization of the system because, in his view, there’s no real evidence of better quality.
“I beg you not to allow hyperbole induced by those who wish to privatize much of the system to allow our collective recognition that it is a good system to be undermined,” Lewis said. “Healthcare is a defining characteristic of the nation, it’s rooted in the basic values of the country.”
Both Lewis and Decter said a new agreement on healthcare would eventually be reached, although Decter forecasted a “lively battle” between the federal government and the provinces following the release of the Romanow report.
“I believe our political leaders will come to a renewal agreement on Canadian medicare because we want them to,” Decter said. “This is very central to us as a nation.”
“The Canadian people will not tolerate otherwise,” agreed Lewis. He then added that after years of government and business focus on “financial architecture,” the pendulum is now swinging towards the human side of the equation.
“We have been so obsessed with debt, deficit, taxes and the stock market, that the consequences of public policy, in human terms, have held very little centrality,” Lewis told CAIFA delegates. “One senses that we now understand that you can’t leave human beings so vulnerable.”
Filed by Doug Watt, Advisor.ca, dwatt@advisor.ca.
(10/01/02)
Doug Watt
(October 1, 2002) The much-anticipated final report of the Romanow commission on Canada’s healthcare system will reinforce the public medicare system and reject two-tier privatization, predicts Stephen Lewis, the UN’s special envoy to Africa on HIV/AIDS.
Lewis said he’s optimistic that politicians will pay attention to the report, due in November, and implement its main recommendations. Lewis is Canada’s former ambassador to the UN.
“Everything lies with Romanow,” Lewis said yesterday during a healthcare town hall at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors in Ottawa. “He will be the benchmark for the next generation.”
Former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow heads the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada. The royal commission is mandated to engage Canadians in a dialogue about the healthcare system and then recommend measures to ensure the sustainability of a universally accessible, publicly funded health system.
Lewis predicts Romanow’s report will also recommend improvements in primary health systems, such as community clinics and group practices. And he expects that Romanow will recommend adding drug costs and home care to the publicly insured part of the system. This prediction was supported by Michael Decter of the National Board of the Canadian Institute for Health, another participant in the town hall discussion.
“There is a larger private role in drug coverage than there is a public role, which I think is a disgrace,” Decter said, adding there’s a “great deal of rhetoric” on the privatization issue.
“It’s an absolute waste of time and energy to debate whether the private sector has a role [in healthcare],” said Rob Brown of the Institute of Insurance and Pension Research.
“The private sector already pays 30% of the costs,” Brown told the town hall. “The debate should be how do we decide what is publicly paid for and how we decide what is left to the private sector.”
Figuring that out will require better access to data, Brown said, followed by a cost-benefit analysis. “Anything where you don’t get a bang for your buck should be allowed through private payment.”
But Lewis believes Romanow will reject greater privatization of the system because, in his view, there’s no real evidence of better quality.
“I beg you not to allow hyperbole induced by those who wish to privatize much of the system to allow our collective recognition that it is a good system to be undermined,” Lewis said. “Healthcare is a defining characteristic of the nation, it’s rooted in the basic values of the country.”
Both Lewis and Decter said a new agreement on healthcare would eventually be reached, although Decter forecasted a “lively battle” between the federal government and the provinces following the release of the Romanow report.
“I believe our political leaders will come to a renewal agreement on Canadian medicare because we want them to,” Decter said. “This is very central to us as a nation.”
“The Canadian people will not tolerate otherwise,” agreed Lewis. He then added that after years of government and business focus on “financial architecture,” the pendulum is now swinging towards the human side of the equation.
“We have been so obsessed with debt, deficit, taxes and the stock market, that the consequences of public policy, in human terms, have held very little centrality,” Lewis told CAIFA delegates. “One senses that we now understand that you can’t leave human beings so vulnerable.”
Filed by Doug Watt, Advisor.ca, dwatt@advisor.ca.
(10/01/02)
