Date of publication: April 11, 2022 • 13 hours ago • 4 minutes reading Prime Minister Justin Trinto in Victoria, BC, on April 11: “We have seen over the past decades that just more money for health care from the federal government does not lead to better results.” Photo by Philip McLachlan / Reuters
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OTTAWA – The federal government is ready to spend more money on health care, but the unfettered approach demanded by prime ministers is off the table, as the Liberals are ready to tie their dollars to the results, says Prime Minister Justin Trinto.
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Aside from the new dental care program demanded by the NDP, not the provinces, Treasury Secretary Chrystia Freeland has not announced any significant new health spending on her budget. Even the campaign’s liberal commitments, such as more cash to attract family doctors and a new transfer of mental health care, were absent. Trinto said he would discuss increased transportation with the prime ministers when the pandemic is over, but last week’s budget did not include funding for increased transportation, creating a possible battle when that meeting takes place. Speaking in Victoria on Monday, Trinto said there would be more funding for healthcare, but his government does not see this as a problem that only money can solve. “We are very clear that there will be significantly more money from the federal government for health care, but we have seen in recent decades that just more money for health care from the federal government does not lead to better results,” he said. “We are sitting down carefully to talk about how to make sure that new investments in healthcare bring the results that Canadians need.”
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BC Prime Minister John Horgan, chairman of the federation council, said Trinto would urgently need to meet with the prime ministers to reach a new agreement and increase the federal cash share in the system. “The federal budget has missed an opportunity to address the major health care challenges facing Canadians,” Horgan said in a statement. “Increased, predictable and sustainable federal funding for health would make a real difference in people’s lives. “Unfortunately, the federal budget has failed to meet this priority.” Health transfers to Canada will be $ 45.2 billion next year, up 4.8 percent from a year ago. The Liberals introduced a formula when they came to power, according to which transfers increase by 3% each year, with additional amounts as the economy grows. This growth has been included in the budget and the transfer is projected to reach $ 55 billion by 2026.
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The prime ministers want Ottawa to immediately increase health care by $ 28 billion and increase it by 5 percent a year. The prime ministers claim that the federal government finances only 22 percent of the cost of health care, but the Liberals claim that they finance 33 percent. In the budget, the Liberals include tax credits that the federal government transferred to counties in the 1970s – allowing counties to raise taxes while the federal government reduced them – while counties count only cash sent to their coffers. The Liberals offered an additional $ 2 billion this year and $ 4 billion last year to help clear pandemic delays from the pandemic, but prime ministers insist they need long-term funding. Speaking in the background because they were not authorized to speak in public, a senior government official said they wanted to have a clear understanding of where federal money would go and how to improve the health care system.
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The official said the government does not intend to tell the provinces how to provide health care, but wants to talk about results and goals. They said after two years of close cooperation with the prime minister during the pandemic, they hope that some cooperation on the problem is possible. The source cited previous examples where the federal government was raising large sums of money that did not end up flowing into provincial health care systems. This happened in 2007, when the then Prime Minister of Quebec, Jean Charest, issued a tax cut of $ 700 million to his voters, shortly after then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper provided $ 2.3 billion in new funding to the province. Quebec Prime Minister François Lego, who has been one of the most ardent supporters of increased transfers, has announced $ 500 checks on every adult Quebec who spends less than $ 100,000 on his most recent budget of $ 3.2 billion.
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Announcing an additional $ 2 billion to clear up pending surgeries last month, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the government would seek to ensure that future investments would have the effect of reducing delays and staffing. giving more Canadians access to a family doctor, improving in the long run. -Registration of long-term care and mental health and improvement of data collection in healthcare, including electronic medical records. Duklos said he was not looking for provincial warfare, but believed the Canadians wanted an improved system. “When faced with these major challenges, Canadians are not interested in a jurisdictional debate or a fiscal and economic struggle,” he said. “Patients waiting for surgery and families hoping to access family health services want results: they want care.” The budget notes that Canada spends two percent more on its share of GDP than the OECD average on health care, but has worse access to and health care outcomes. On Budget Day last week, Freeland said the government wants to focus on results more than dollars. “Canada’s biggest challenge is not that we do not spend enough on health care,” he said. “In fact, we spend a lot of money compared to our peers and we spend a lot of money on health care compared to our peers who have better results than us.” • Email: [email protected] | Twitter: ryantumilty
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