• CTF Reacts to Senate Committee Call For a Rational Debate on Health Care
  
• CTF Praises Kirby Committee Proposals as "In-Step" with Canadians
  
• Kirby Report echoes similar themes in Major CTF Report released last week
  
• CTF Report received praise from Health Care experts

OTTAWA: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today reacted to the latest report from the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology entitled Volume Four: Issues and Options.

The report looks at various options to consider for health care financing, research, service delivery, technology assessment, human resource issues and population health.

Praise for the Kirby Committee
"Taxpayers applaud the Kirby Committee for continuing their sober and objective look at the prospects and the entire range of options for health care reform," stated CTF federal director Walter Robinson. "Health care is an emotive issue, but charged emotions lead to irrational and narrow debate. The Kirby committee's continuing contribution is one of rational, informed analysis: this is what Canadians deserve when it comes to discussing the future of our health care system."

Kirby Committee "In-Step" with Canadians
"The Kirby Committee is in-step with the expectations of taxpayers," added Robinson. "The debate is not about public vs. private options or the Canadian vs. the U.S. system. It is much more global and should focus on quality and what works in health care reform."

Kirby Analysis Echoes Findings of Major CTF Report
The Kirby Committee is calling for an open and thorough debate on the applicability of user fees, co-payment and parallel private systems as just a few of the options to consider for health care reform.

"This Senate Committee report echoes some of our findings released last week in our major health care research and position paper entitled: The Patient, The Condition, The Treatment: A Research and Position Paper on Health Care.

The Patient, The Condition, The Treatment
The CTF utilized today's release of the Kirby Committee report to restate some of the main conclusions in its own report released last week which was understandably overshadowed by the tragic events in the United States.

Core Beliefs
In its paper the CTF asserts, with evidence, that:

• Health care is in a state of crisis;
  
• Canadians are ahead of their politicians on the need for reforms;
  
• Health care is a shared jurisdiction between Ottawa and the provinces;
  
• The Canada Health Act is not the Bible;
  
• It is impossible to measure health systems by numbers alone;
  
• The present debate is too continental, it must become global; and
  
• Quality and excellence must be the primary focus of reforms, not cost containment.

Modernizing the Canada Health Act
"Status quo defenders of our present system cling to the Canada Health Act even though an increasing number of scholars and practitioners agree the Act stifles provincial innovation and its principles are often in conflict with each other," Robinson stated.

The CTF proposes modernizing the Act where its current five principles of universality, public administration, accessibility, portability and comprehensiveness would be replaced in favour of universality (clarified), public governance, quality, accountability, choice and sustainability.

Structural Reforms and Options
"We must not be afraid to learn from Sweden or Germany in how they apply user fees or from Singapore and its unique method of pre-funding the health care costs of future generations," suggested Robinson. "Adapting best-practices from around the world is crucial. In a country where one in three jobs depends on exports and where our large cities like Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver match the cultural diversity of other better known cities (ie: New York, London or Paris), our xenophobic approach to health care reform is annoyingly perplexing."


Praise for the CTF Health Care Paper
"The CTF has produced a thorough and well researched paper. It is a valuable contribution to the emerging health care debate," said Dr. William Orovan, a Hamilton-area physician and past president of the Ontario Medical Association (1999-2000).

The CTF health care paper is "readable and concise but at the same time it is also a bold look at the past, present and future of health care in Canada," stated Dr. David Gratzer, author of Code Blue: Reviving Canada's Health Care System, the 1999/2000 Donner Prize winner for best public policy book in Canada.