Most health care professionals are committed to the principles of medicare, and so are most other Canadians. Yet everyone recognizes that the health care system has serious problems, and often does not provide the level of care the public expects. Getting a realistic picture of what is good and bad about the system, and how it can be fixed while staying true to the fundamental principles of publicly-funded health care is the focus of this book.
Editors Bruce Campbell and Greg Marchildon have gathered 34 contributors who offer a wide-ranging, authoritative portrait of medicare in Canada today. Experts from Canada and around the world provide unbiased data on costs, quality of care, wait times, and the overall health of the population. There are international comparisons which show how Canada’s system ranks with the rest of the world. Front-line health care practitioners describe the key successes and failures of the Canadian system today. Policy makers discuss the potential impact of attacks on the system aimed at opening up health care to profit-oriented corporations, and point to alternatives for better care from inside the public system. Visionaries set out the potential of the system to move from a disease orientation to a focus on ensuring a healthy population of children and adults.
For anyone involved in health care – and for every citizen who cares about the future of this social program – this book offers a unique source of reliable, independent information and analysis from experts who share a basic commitment to the values of medicare. At a time when ideologues and advocates of privatization capture much of the attention of the media and politicians, this collection is an invaluable source of information and ideas.
Contributors
Bruce Campbell
Bruce Campbell is executive director (since 1994) of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Beyond his administrative responsibilities, he has spoken and written widely on public policy issues, and is a frequent media commentator. For many years he coordinated the Centre’s Alternative Federal Budget project. He is co-author or editor of four books including: (with Maude Barlow) Straight Through the Heart: How the Liberals Abandoned the Just Society (HarperCollins, 1995); and Living with Uncle: Canada-US Relations in an Age of Empire (Lorimer, 2006). He was formerly a researcher with the North South Institute, a policy analyst with the federal NDP caucus, and a senior economist with the Canadian Labour Congress
Greg Marchildon
Greg Marchildon is currently Canada Research Chair in Public Policy and Economic History at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Regina. He is a senior fellow at the School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University, a mentor with the Trudeau Foundation, and the chair of the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation. After receiving his PhD from the London School of Economics, he taught at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. Dr. Marchildon served as cabinet secretary and deputy minister to the premier of Saskatchewan from 1996 to 2001. He was executive director of the Romanow Commission on the Future of Health Care. He is the author of Health Systems in Transition: Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2006) as well as other books and articles on Canadian health policy.
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This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada. Ce projet est financé en partie par le gouvernement du Canada.
