Quality People want as high a quality of life and health care as possible. Quality of care and equality of access were frequently cited as the twin pillars of our health system. We found in our work that these values are deeply held and form a solid and stable foundation for public policy. Many have remained unchanged over time. What has changed, however, is the degree of certainty that Canadians have about the future of the health system.
People are proud of the existing system and see it as a source of collective values and identity.
They worry about the future viability of the system and are resistant to many of the alternatives currently on the table. They believe cost problems are rooted in mismanagement and abuse, and would prefer to see these issues dealt with first. This being said, people still prefer using new public resources to preserve the integrity and core values of the system. In the quantitative portion of our research, participants were presented with a specific list of values and asked the relative importance of each in shaping health reform. The results which follow were combined with the results of the qualitative research and the findings from our national consultation process.