KEEP THE HEART IN MEDICARE!
As you know, the present Canada Health Accord 10 year agreement is going to end on March 31, 2014. The Canada Health Accord is an agreement between the federal government and the provinces and territories which ensures that the five basic principles of the Canada Health Act are supported.
As a board member for the provincial BC Retired Teachers’ Association I am meeting (along with other organization reps) with the 2 MPs for our region during next week because we are concerned about the expiry of the 2004 Health Accord. It is our understanding that the Federal government is unwilling to renegotiate our Medicare legislation. The meeting with Alex Atamanenko will take place in Grand Forks on February 17th and the meeting with Dan Albas will take place in Penticton on February 18th.
The reason for the meeting is that we have a problem. In December, 2011, the Federal Government unilaterally announced a withdrawal from anything but a reduced financing role: in 2017 the transfer of health care funds will be cut from the current annual 6% increase to a percentage pegged to the GDP, with a guarantee base of only 3%. It has been projected that by 2024, the provinces will lose a cumulative amount of $52.5 billion in transfers and Equalization payments.
Source: Report of the Council of the Federation Working Group on Fiscal Arrangements, July 2012.
In a time of an aging population and an increasing demand for new health care services, funding cuts will endanger Medicare as we know it.
We believe that the discontinuation of the Canada Health Accord will bring about:
•the demise of our current health care system and lead to
•a two tier care system providing luxury, privatized for-profit health care for the wealthy alongside a struggling, underfunded health care for the majority of Canadians with
•a health care system with varying, different levels of care depending on where Canadians happen to live
•the prolonged failure to institute a universal Canada-wide pharmaceutical program
•lack of funding for homecare and palliative care which will be needed for the huge increases there will be in the proportion of elderly Canadians who will require additional healthcare.
We are requesting that the Federal, Provincial and Territorial governments negotiate a new 2014 Health Accord that protects and strengthens our universal health care system.
We are asking Alex Atamanenko and Dan Albas to help put a stop to the undermining of our health care system by persuading our Federal and Provincial and Territorial governments to return to the bargaining table and negotiate a new 2014 Health Accord so that every Canadian has access to quality health care services as needed, regardless of ability to pay or where they live in Canada.
A new accord would include:
• A continuing Care plan that integrates home, facility-based-long-term, respite and palliative care;
• a universal public pharmacy plan that provides equitable access to safe and appropriate medication;
• Adequate and stable federal funding including a 6 per-cent escalator.
Stefan Cieslik