Posted: Friday, 16 June 2006

The roundtable brought together some 45 participants, about half of whom were labour leaders and staff. Other participants included some of Canada’s leading experts on health care policy, drawn from universities and policy research institutes, and community activists. What united the group was a common commitment to preserving and expanding public health insurance and the current system of predominantly public delivery of health care services. (Biographical notes on speakers are attached.)

As CLC President Kenneth V. Georgetti observed in his opening remarks not very long ago, at the end of 2002, the Romanow Commission endorsed continuation of a single-payer public health insurance system for physician and hospital services, and called for expansion of Medicare and the Canada Health Act to cover advanced diagnostic services, some home care services and, ultimately, prescription drugs. The Commission also opposed greater private sector involvement in the delivery of medical services. Romanow argued that further privatization would fundamentally undercut Medicare as a “moral enterprise,” and that it would be “a perversion of Canadian values to accept a system where money, rather than need, determines who gets access to care.” He further argued the case for public health care in terms of cost-efficiency, and in terms of its important contribution to the health of the Canadian economy.
 

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