I just watched a video from Dr. Jeff Turnbull, the President of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) on the CMA website. In this video, Dr. Turnbull explained that CMA is launching a web-driven national dialogue on transforming the country’s health care system. Three questions were proposed to all Canadians:
1. The law underpinning our system – the Canada Health Act – dates back to the 1980s. It covers only doctor and hospital care. Do you think it should be broadened to include things like pharmacare and long-term care?
2. It is important for citizens to feel they are receiving good value for their health care. What would you consider good value?
3. Patients and their families play an important part in their health care. What do you think Canadians’ responsibilities are, now and in the future, in regards to their health?
This is a great theoretical idea on taking the democratic and everybody’s-opinion-counts approach to resolving a multi-billion-dollar question. Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) has announced earlier this year that health spending in Canada was expected to hit $192 billion in this country. Although other facts have suggested that Canadian health expenditure in 2010 has been the lowest in 13 years, how much more money do we need to pump into our health care system to satisfy this country’s unique health care needs such as aging population, chronic disease management, remote health care delivery, to name a few? Not that I’m suggesting our health care system is hopeless. I’m just worrying how effective this national dialogue will be, what the data collected from the dialogue can contribute to health policy planning, and how many of us really care about our health care system being as efficient as it can be. Spreading the word helps I guess, eh?
If you are interested in participating in the dialogue and helping to improve the Canadian health care system, instructions can be found on the CMA website.