Title: Grey zones
Description: The Canada Health Act (CHA) creates a series of "grey zones" in which considerable discretion is granted to the federal health minister to determine what is subject to penalty under the Act. But Ottawa's unwillingness to provide clarity with respect to these grey zones has generated a political "negativity-bias" against reform. While the CHA provides considerable latitude for provinces to experiment, the political scope for reform would be broadened if Ottawa were to clarify the boundaries of the CHA by clearly stating its position on the consistency of various practices with the Act as issues arise on the public agenda. The Commentary outlines the provisions of the CHA, and examines four current issues relating to the Act: annual fees charged by integrative health clinics; provincial healthcare deductibles; provincial funding of health services purchased or insured out-of-country; and provincial funding of out-of-province health services facilitated by private medical concierge services. In each case, the Commentary examines how the practice might be subject to penalties under the CHA, and highlights the federal role to date in debates on these issues.
Subjects: Deductibles and Coinsurance, Legislation & jurisprudence, Health Insurance, National Health Programs, Economics, Privatization, Medical policy, National health services, Canada, Canada. Canada Health Act
Places: Canada