|
|
|
||||||
 
Health care isn’t about ‘consumers’ or buying
a pair of socks
|
 |
|
OTTAWA–Over 100 senior church leaders and health care providers
met on Parliament Hill this week to debate the future of health
care in Canada. Led by the contributions of Dr. Michael Rachlis
and Dr. Nuala Kenny, the forum participants built on their long
history of engagement with health care as providers, ethicists,
nurses, pastors, chaplains and counsellors.
At the heart of the forum’s work was the insight that medical
care is, by its very nature, always a moral activity. It is an encounter
in which needs are expressed and met and care is extended. Patients
are not simply consumers, and health care is not purchasing socks.
Health is one of the most basic human goods without which other
goods will simply not be available to us. It is therefore not surprising
that health care has become for Canadians one of the defining characteristics
of our national identity, an expression of our commitment not only
to ourselves, but to the communities to which we belong and of which
we are a part. The Medicare system is an expression of our belief
that medical needs are too fundamental to be responded to solely
on the basis of market forces and for reasons of profit.
Yet there are some fundamental challenges to the assumptions that
shape the Canada Health Act and the Medicare system here in Canada,
and if we are to respond to these challenges we need strong and
courageous leadership from our federal and provincial governments.
While the evidence clearly shows that for profit health care is
not more efficient or compassionate, Canadians are being asked to
give up the universal access guaranteed by a publicly funded system
in favour of promises of greater choice – promises that have
not been fulfilled in the market driven system of the United States.
The forum did not believe the claims that Medicare is unworkable
although the participants did acknowledge that it needs to be reformed.
The current system is hampered by uncertainties in its financing
making long range planning difficult if not impossible. It is also
too closely tied to delivery systems that focus on acute care at
the cost of spending on preventive care, home care, pharmacare and
other determinants of health. Members of the forum committed themselves
to advocate for the extension of Medicare into these areas. Care
that is poorly organized in its delivery mechanisms and poorly focused
in terms of health needs will be poor quality care and expensive
care.
We are at a historical moment of great importance where Canadians will have to choose whether their health care system will be characterized by values of competition and the provision of medical services on the basis of the ability to pay, or by the values of compassion and the provision of care on the basis of need. We believe that Canadians would overwhelmingly prefer the latter.
There are, of course, many interests ranged against the changes that are necessary if Medicare is to fulfill the hopes and aspirations of Canadians. At the forum we saw the commitment of the churches to work in cooperation with health care providers, advocacy groups, individual politicians and governments to support the responsible extension of Medicare and with it the values in which Canadians see their hopes and aspirations reflected.
The Church’s Forum on the Future of Health Care was organized by the Ecumenical Health Network, which is a working group of the Commission on Justice and Peace of the Canadian Council of Churches. The Canadian Council of Churches is a forum of 19 member churches, including the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the United Church of Canada, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, the Christian Reformed Church, and the Salvation Army.
For further information, please contact the Co-chairs of the Ecumenical Health Network:
Jim Marshall
The United Church of Canada
416-231-7680 x 4079
Stephen Allen
The Presbyterian Church in Canada
416-441-1111 x 256
Top
of page |
|