If Canada needs an “adult conversation” on health care (read, a frank appraisal and an open-minded consideration of options), that discussion appears to be well launched—at least among the chattering classes. Last year we had assessments of the performance and the sustainability of Canada’s current model of healthcare delivery and finance from two leading public finance economists—David Dodge and Don Drummond. This year, Canada’s pre-eminent healthcare journalist—André Picard of The Globe and Mail—delivered a Conference Board of Canada lecture on the same theme. And now Picard’s estimable Globe colleague Jeffrey Simpson has entered the fray with Chronic Condition: Why Canada’s Health Care System Needs to Be Dragged into the 21st Century.
These are important, reasoned, well-grounded politically centrist contributions, and they deserve a wide audience. While not of one view about the options to be considered, they all present a case along the...
Carolyn Hughes Tuohy is professor emerita of political science and a senior fellow at the School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto. She is a specialist in comparative public policy, particularly social policy. Her publications include Accidental Logics: The Dynamics of Change in the Health Care Arena in the United States, Britain and Canada (Oxford University Press, 1999).
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