Introduction: Is the current Canadian healthcare system sustainable?

Hi Friends,

We are both medical doctors by background and care deeply about all health care issues. We are currently pursuing the full time MBA program at Richard Ivey School of Business, London, Ontario and specializing in Health Care Sector.

Our Canadian Health care system is based on 5 criteria dictated by The Canada Health Act (CHA) which received Royal Assent on 1 April 1984.

1. Public administration: administered on a non-profit basis by a public authority, accountable to provincial government for its financial transactions.
   
2. Comprehensiveness: must ensure all services that are "medically necessary"
   
3. Universality: all residents in a province have access to public health care insurance and insured services on uniform terms and conditions.
   
4. Portability: provinces to cover insured health services provided to their citizens while they are temporarily absent from their province of residence or from Canada.
   
5. Accessibility: insured persons must have reasonable and uniform access to insured health services, free of financial or other barriers.
   

As Canadians, we are proud of our system despite its challenges especially when compared to our neighbours down South where half of personal bankruptcies are due to medical bills. Our system is no doubt expensive. The cost of health care in this country continues to rise at a rate far exceeding the rise in GDP. If these trends continue, it won't be long before we may have to borrow money to pay for health care costs.

The current health care system is thus unsustainable and there are many people who believe that a 6th principle of sustainability should be added. There is urgency for a public dialogue on this critical issue. Our first poll question is a very basic one. In coming weeks and months, we will bring interesting and factual stories and issues to you on Canadian health care system.

We are launching this blog as a platform to share issues and ideas related to Canadian Health care, based on your experience and knowledge. We hope that this blog will evolve as a community of people who want to share their voice and eventually make a difference to the health care. We will like to have inputs from everyone of you; your friends and families on the critical issue of health care which impacts us all. Please forward our blog to everyone who cares about health issues.

Here are a few links:

Expenditure on Healthcare in Canada-Health Canada
Health Canada's role in Canadian Healthcare system
Canada Health Act: overview and options

Chander Sehgal and Michael Tong