Polls Shows Canadians Apprehensive over Federal Health Plans

Poll of the Day: Canadians still want a strong federal role in health care.

So, the premiers of the country's 10 provinces and three territories are meeting in Victoria today and tomorrow to discuss that eternal Canadian question, the future of public health care. The meeting marks the first time that the premiers have gathered 'round to talk health since they learned that the federal government will be linking health transfers to the growth in national GDP starting in 2017. In conjunction with the switch, the Harper government says it will also allow the provinces to spend their transfer payments without any strings attached. The goal is to let the provinces experiment with new ways to deliver health care efficiently, although observers have questioned if this will undermine the Canada Health Act's guarantees to equal access across this fair country. So far, some of the premiers aren't too thrilled about the plan.

And now, a new poll commissioned on behalf of the Canadian Medical Association finds the general public isn't exactly sold on it, either. The Ipsos Reid poll shows that fully 70 per cent of respondents are "worried that without accountability to the federal government, provinces will have no incentive to achieve health care efficiencies," while 88 per cent fear that the new funding scheme will lead to imbalances in health delivery from province to province. Likewise, 97 per cent of the survey's 1,000 adult respondents said they feel federal control over the Health Act is "important." That's a lot of percentage points! Anyhow, methinks we smell an opposition platform plank for 2015 ...