The Canada Health Act has acquired a sense of quasi-sacred standing that defies any logic about how the world has changed in the last two decades. In some parts of Canadian society, it would be safer to propose an amendment to the Ten Commandments than to the Canada Health Act. The state depends more on health care in Canada as a reflection of our collective values of caring and responsibility. The act may actually contain provisions that limit the flexibility afforded to provincial governments to ensure universal access to quality health care. Demographic and technological changes can in fact lead us in various directions, depending on how we manage the system.
Technology can enable our health care providers.
Demographics need not be a negative. The cost of health care exceeds our means. But every meaningful system in business, government, the professions and technological sectors has undergone significant change in the last 10 years. Surely we cannot expect that the structure and mode of health care delivery will continue to provide high quality care and remain financially viable without undergoing a similar degree of reform. Any change to the way health care is delivered or financed will diminish accessibility.