According to AIMS’ Manager of Health Policy, Jamie MacNeil, the decision by the Supreme Court of Canada to strike down portions of the Quebec Health Insurance Act is the needed incentive for government to do things better in health care. Our judges are telling our federal and provincial governments that they actually have to honour their promises to Canadians to provide to them health care when they’re sick.
Contrary to the alarmist claims of the medicare dogmatists, Canadians have little to fear from the Supreme Court’s demand that governments not abuse the rights of citizens in their desire to provide high quality public health care. That means that forbidding Canadians to spend their own money to buy health care services they judge necessary is not on, despite decades of governments doing just that. But according to MacNeil, far from destroying the public system, this will usher in a new era of accountability on the part of governments for their stewardship of public health care resources. Not before time!
To read Jamie MacNeil’s commentary, click here.
