- © 2008 Canadian Medical Association
I disagree with Matthew Stanbrook and colleagues when they discount ideology as a driving force in the Canadian health care system.1 If one frames the health care debate in terms of equitable access and human rights rather than in terms of the public versus private provision of health care, there are real and substantially different ideologies at work. For instance, the Canada Health Act exempts workers compensation plans from its mandate and does not include the provision of drugs.2 As a result, different populations in Canada have substantially different access to health care.
Canada is a signatory to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,3 which mandates equal access to health care for everyone: “By virtue of article 2.2 and article 3, the Covenant proscribes any discrimination in access to health care and underlying determinants of health, as well as to means and entitlements for their procurement, on the grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, physical or mental disability, health status (including HIV/AIDS), sexual orientation and civil, political, social or other status, which has the intention or effect of nullifying or impairing the equal enjoyment or exercise of the right to health.”4
I suggest that we should first affirm the principle that health is a human right, honour an international treaty our country has signed and expand the scope of the Canada Health Act. We can then decide how to allocate the increased funding our health care system needs.
Footnotes
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Competing interests: None declared.