The Canadian Health Care System is known as a single-payer system meaning that our Government pays for health care services, but does not provide them; instead, non-profit organizations or physicians working on a fee-for-service basis provide these services.

Improving the provincial deficit and ensuring that funds are spent according to community needs are the main concerns of the provincial Government, especially since health care costs and necessary services will change with Canada’s aging population.

Privatization

• One of the proposed solutions to improve health care is privatization, which is already partly in place since private not-for-profit providers service most people in Canada.
• Controversy over privatization stems from whether for-profit providers, (such as fee-for-service physicians,) should deliver publicly funded services, especially since private for-profit providers may reduce the quality of their health services in order to generate profit.
• Another concern with allowing for-profit providers into the health care system is that it forces not-for-profit providers to adopt similar strategies so that they can afford to run.

Alberta’s Health Care System and its problems

• Canada’s health care system centers around hospitals and physicians, meaning that the focus is on finding a cure for an illness, instead of addressing the root causes such as poverty or poor nutrition.
• The Federal Government provides Provincial governments with their health care funding; in Alberta this funding goes to Alberta Health and Wellness who distribute it at their discretion.
• In 2002, the provincial health care structure was reorganized into 9 Regional Health Authorities and two Provincial Health Authorities, a dramatic decrease from its original 200.
• Regionalization was meant to reduce overall health care spending, pay down the debt and allow each region to vary the services they provided in order to adapt to local needs.
• However, there have been a number of problems with Regionalization such as a lack of direction from the government; complications of integrating the original 200+ Boards and problems with addressing the diversity of needs found in each region.
• There is also a lack of culturally responsive care meaning that health care is not equally accessible to all Canadians due to discriminating policies, and staff who may lack the knowledge and skills needed to accommodate cultural, linguistic or racial differences.

Solutions

• One proposed solution is emphasizing community based care which could potentially reduce the costs associated with running hospitals and hiring doctors.
• Some of the issues with this solution are whether or not the ‘community’ will be legitimately represented in policy-making decisions and also whether communities will be willing to accept the responsibility and be accountable for spending public money.
• Another suggestion has been cultural competency which would create more culturally responsive care through diversity programs, sensitivity towards cultural issues and health care staff’s understanding and ability to address these issues.

Recommendations for the Provincial Government  

1. The government should support a publicly funded single-payer model with private not-for-profit services.
2. Inequality must be addressed by providing culturally competent health services supported by a legislative framework, backed with political will and resources.
3. The government should consider integrating other systems of healing, such as Eastern medicine, into its current health model to increase health care choices.
4. With community-based health centers governments should provide sustainable multi-year funding using accountability measures negotiated with the communities.
5. The governments and Regional Health Authorities should ensure that health care information is reliable, objective, relevant and easy to find and understand.
6. If community based organizations are to develop policy, the government should be sensitive to their limited resources, allow flexibility and time for the emergence of proposals and incorporate proposals into policy-making processes.
7. The government should support research that explores the non-financial barriers faced by communities of Colour in relation to health care services, such as different cultural beliefs, the situation of immigrants, refugees, etc.
8. The government should provide a breakdown by race, class and gender to community-based groups upon request so gaps and barriers in health services can be identified and acted upon.