Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 Articles
    • Obituary notices
  • Authors & Reviewers
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
    • Patient engagement
  • Members & Subscribers
    • Benefits for CMA Members
    • CPD Credits for Members
    • Subscribe to CMAJ Print
    • Subscription Prices
    • Obituary notices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2023
    • Avis de décès
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN

User menu

Search

  • Advanced search
CMAJ
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN
CMAJ

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 Articles
    • Obituary notices
  • Authors & Reviewers
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
    • Patient engagement
  • Members & Subscribers
    • Benefits for CMA Members
    • CPD Credits for Members
    • Subscribe to CMAJ Print
    • Subscription Prices
    • Obituary notices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2023
    • Avis de décès
  • Visit CMAJ on Facebook
  • Follow CMAJ on Twitter
  • Follow CMAJ on Pinterest
  • Follow CMAJ on Youtube
  • Follow CMAJ on Instagram
Editorial

What can you buy with a $33 bill?

CMAJ October 17, 2000 163 (8) 945;
  • Article
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

After the requisite amount of bickering, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and the First Ministers have agreed on what no one would have had the nerve to scuttle: a new ”health deal” that will inject $23.4 billion into health and social programs over 5 years. This seems like a lot when you say it fast. But, assuming that all of it will be directed toward health care (and subtracting the amount earmarked for early childhood development) in fiscal year 2001/2002 this funding will amount to an additional health care outlay of $100 per capita (based on our population in 1999). Not a lot of money, considering that yearly expenditures for health care in Canada are $1959 per capita in public money, plus the $857 spent by the average Canadian directly from his or her own pocket (1999 projections).1 By the end of this fiscal year, only 1 billion dollars will have been handed over, and this specifically for medical equipment and information technology. That works out to about $33 per capita, which doesn‚t seem like much to crow about.

In arriving at this deal both levels of government hoped to deflect criticism that they have mismanaged and underfunded the health care system. This is especially important for the governing Liberals, for whom this will be a key election issue (page 1029). But we should have no illusions: the transfer of money from our federal left pocket to our (largely) right provincial and territorial pockets will have little effect on the underlying problems facing medicare in this country.2 The injection of cash is a political solution to a political problem.

Health care professionals and patients have seen the problems with our health care system up close. Bed shortages, emergency room crises, delays in introducing new technology and impossible demands on home care and long-term institutional care have become all too familiar since the mid-1980s, when the Conservatives, and then the Liberals, curbed transfer payments to the provinces.3 In the presence of an oppressive debt and under political pressure to deal with the deficit, the federal government had little choice but to slash its largest source of expenditures: health care. The provinces and territories, in the same situation, had no room to manoeuvre around the shortfall in federal funding. It is a credit to patients, health care professionals and health care managers that the system survived.

And, almost inadvertently, it may have even been strengthened. Hospitals, which suffered the bulk of the cutbacks, have had to seek alliances with community physicians, home care programs and other community resources. The barriers between different levels of care have started to come down, to the benefit of patients and health care professionals.

We hope that the provincial and territorial health ministers will not simply recreate the health care system that was, but will persevere with some of the important changes that have been made. We need to pay attention to what has happened, to encourage primary care reform and to make the health care system ... well, a system. — CMAJ

References

  1. 1.↵
    Canadian Institute for Health Information. National health expenditures. Available: www.cihi.ca/facts/nhex/hexdata/htm (accessed 14 Sept 2000).
  2. 2.↵
    Time for a new Canada Health Act [editorial]. CMAJ 2000;163(6):689.
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
  3. 3. Deber.↵
    RB. Who wants to pay for health care? CMAJ 2000;163(1):43-4.
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

CMAJ
Vol. 163, Issue 8
17 Oct 2000
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author

Article tools

Respond to this article
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
To sign up for email alerts or to access your current email alerts, enter your email address below:
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on CMAJ.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
What can you buy with a $33 bill?
(Your Name) has sent you a message from CMAJ
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the CMAJ web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
What can you buy with a $33 bill?
CMAJ Oct 2000, 163 (8) 945;

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
‍ Request Permissions
Share
What can you buy with a $33 bill?
CMAJ Oct 2000, 163 (8) 945;
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like

Jump to section

  • Article
    • References
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Le sujet de l’heure : l’accès aux soins de santé au Canada
  • Integration of midwifery care in Canada
  • CMAJ’s new guidance on the reporting of race and ethnicity in research articles
Show more Éditorial

Similar Articles

 

View Latest Classified Ads

Content

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Collections
  • Sections
  • Blog
  • Podcasts
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • Early releases

Information for

  • Advertisers
  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • CMA Members
  • CPD credits
  • Media
  • Reprint requests
  • Subscribers

About

  • General Information
  • Journal staff
  • Editorial Board
  • Advisory Panels
  • Governance Council
  • Journal Oversight
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright and Permissions
  • Accessibiity
  • CMA Civility Standards
CMAJ Group

Copyright 2023, CMA Impact Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)

All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association or its subsidiaries.

To receive any of these resources in an accessible format, please contact us at CMAJ Group, 500-1410 Blair Towers Place, Ottawa ON, K1J 9B9; p: 1-888-855-2555; e: cmajgroup@cmaj.ca

Powered by HighWire