Opinion: Number-crunching overshadows health-care efficiency – Edmonton Journal
January 6, 2017
The need for systemic change and transformation of the health-care system has been well documented by health-care stakeholders over the past several years.
However, the power struggle between federal and provincial/territorial health and finance ministers at their Dec. 16 meeting demonstrated how political wrangling and number crunching can blind politicians to the complexity of health care and possibilities for increasing the system’s efficiency and effectiveness.
The meeting regarding funding formulas was a follow-up to an October meeting when provincial and territorial health ministers refused to accept the federal government’s plan for new investment in home care and a proposed cut in federal health transfer payments.
At this second meeting, the federal government offered a 3.5-per-cent increase in transfer payments along with funds designated for home care and mental-health services. Most ministers initially rejected the offer, but some returned to negotiate an agreement for their provinces.
