Time for a new Canada Health Act

摘要: Editorial Page 1 Editorial It seems almost paradoxical that in these times of unparalleled economic prosperity, reduced personal taxes and national budget surpluses most developed countries are worried about the sustainability of their health and social programs. In Canada, discussion of the sustainability of medicare has become the national pastime. Some of the concern has arisen because of a chronic disregard by the federal and provincial governments of the need to provide adequate capital investment; for example, Canada ranks near the bottom of Western nations in terms of MRI devices per population.Although this shortfall urgently needs correction, both in the short term with an injection of funds and in the long term with a better method for financing capital investment, it is not the main threat to sustainability. The real worry is that with everincreasing privatization of health care (the private component of total …