Standing Together for Medicare:
A Call to Care
The following statement came out of the Canadian Health Coalition - Canadian Labour Congress Conference on the Future of Health Care, October 12, 2001,
Ottawa. It was endorsed by the OPSEU Executive Board on October 24, 2001
For an up-to-date list of organizations that have endorsed this statement, visit the Canadian Health Coalition’s web site at www.healthcoalition.ca/romanow.html
The peoples of Canada believe that health is a fundamental right of every human
being without distinction of race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation,
political belief, economic or social condition. Organizations representing
millions of Canadians will mobilize to defend this right and to ensure that the
following principles shape the future direction of the health are system:
1. The recognition of the highest attainment of health as a fundamental right
throughout life and the necessity of preserving public health through active
measures of promotion, prevention, and protection including such determinants as
housing, food safety, income, education, environment, employment and peace.
2. The recognition of health care as a public good in which the few must not
profit at the expense of the many. We affirm the need for a system of public
health care which is organized on the basis of public administration, public
insurance and the delivery of services on a public, not-for-profit basis.
3. Opposition to any commercialization and privatization of health.
Therefore the federal government must negotiate a general exclusion of health
services and health insurance from all trade agreements.
4. The need for the federal government to fully assume its responsibilities in
respect to health, particularly by restoring and increasing federal transfers to
levels sufficient to secure the integrity of the Canada Health Act, 1984.
5. The reaffirmation of the original vision of a truly comprehensive public
health care system for Canadians providing a continuum of services. The next
steps are the expansion of the public system to include a universal system of
home and long-term care services and pharmacare.
6. The need to move away from a fee-for-service model towards a
community-based, multi-disciplinary approach to the management, organization and
delivery of services and care. Levels of services must be sufficient so that the
burden of care does not fall on families, mainly women.
7. An accountable health care system through democratic participation and
governance at all levels.
8. The recognition that health care workers are critical to the effective
operation of the health care system and that decent wages, working conditions
and training opportunities are essential to high quality care and the retention
of health care workers.
Regardless of where we live, it is now imperative to reaffirm the social values
we all share. These values must guide our collective choices for future social
services and public health care. They are incompatible with the
commercialization of all public services ought by the international trade
agenda.
We believe these values must be adhered to by all governments in Canada, even though jurisdiction is largely a provincial or territorial matter. Therefore, the principles of the Canada Health Act should be enshrined in the laws of each province and territory.
We come together to commit to direct political action to ensure that governments throughout Canada protect and expand health care based on the foundation of the Canada Health Act, 1984.
What stands between Medicare and its destruction are the peoples of Canada. Future generations are depending on our vigilance.
"The public has an abiding sense of the values of fairness and equity and do not
want to see a health system in which the rich are treated differently from the
poor. The Forum supports this view and supports necessary changes to our system
only if we preserve the essence of medicare - universal coverage based on need,
without financial barrier, portable across the country, to a comprehensive array
of publically administered health care services.
- National Forum on Health, 1997
