Healthcare is the largest expense in provincial budgets and a hugely important public service.
But our system lacks accountability: little to no attention is paid to health outcomes, which would tell us how effective our health system is working, where improvements could be made, and where costs could be lowered. Citizens should insist that governments report fully on the effectiveness of doctors, hospitals, clinics, and medical interventions such as prescription drugs, screening, and surgeries.
In many cases, we may be over-medicating, over-screening, over-operating, and overusing doctors where less-expensive alternatives would work better for patients. To fix our health system, we need better information on the costs and utility of health policy.