The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Budgeting for Medicare Prime Minister Paul Martin's first budget was certainly different from those of his predecessor, a rather strange document for someone who wants to get re-elected. It appeared to be dictated in a large part by the sponsorship scandal with lots of talk on careful and prudent managing of the taxpayers' money. The finance minister said the objective was to balance the books and pay off some of the nation's $510 billion debt. A month before, Martin had sort of promised more cash for medicare and Natives Ð none was delivered, however there was certainly some new spending; a billion for public health, $662 million for the armed forces, $170 million for education of low-income families, and (finally) a billion for mad cow compensation. One interesting feature was the announcement to sell off the government's shares in Petro-Canada for $3 billion and officially bury Trudeau's National Energy Policy, hated in Alberta. The obvious hope there is to somehow save the last two Liberal seats in that province. With Alberta's Steven Harper as Conservative leader, don't bet it will work. Speaking of Harper, he was overjoyed with the presentation saying: "To claim right now you're going to run on good financial management is playing to their weakness. It sure doesn't sound like an election budget to me." Anti-American NDP leader Jack Layton's response was typical, as he said that Canadians do not want debt repayment, but rather more money for health care. Canada's two NDP Premiers followed suit. Gary Doer expressed anger that promised new health dollars will not be forthcoming. If future budget surpluses are used to pay off debt, Doer claims our health care system will collapse, while Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert claimed medicare has at best 10 years. Is this true? Not necessarily according to Roy Romanow, author of the Romanow Report on Medicare. In an interview, Romanow admitted advocating more money for health care, but also reform in the various provincial systems, saying in effect that the premiers paid little attention to reform and instead continuously begged Ottawa for more money. The federal health minister picked up on Romanow's comments, vaguely promising to do "something extraordinary" to health care this summer if needed reforms take place. Minister Pettigrew added that Ottawa wants to make sure new funding goes to health care, not something like tax cuts. Last year, the feds gave a one-time $2 billion increase in health dollars with a very unclear "promise" of a permanent increase. Manitoba's share was $70 million which it seems was promptly spent. In fact, health care spending under the NDP has greatly increased from just under $2 billion in 1999 to over $3 billion this year. Critics claim that the continuous throwing of money into the health care system will never meet the insatiable demand. Increases have averaged more than $100 million year after year with no signs of stopping. In fact, Manitoba Health indicates more spending will take place with plans for a government "sandwich factory" for hospitals (formerly contracted out to private business) and a government laundromat, plus an announced plan to spend $1.4 million to hire 25 more emergency room nurses for Winnipeg hospitals' often criticized E.R. waiting rooms. The nurses will be trained to monitor and assess E.R. patients. A good idea but will Manitoba Health be able to find the nurses with a continuous nursing shortage in the west? In addition, Manitoba nurses' union contract ends in September, and with expected substantial raises expected in Alberta, Manitoba will have to keep up and match the salaries. With no new money for Medicare, the effect on Manitoba's budget is substantial, a claimed $100 million less on transfer payments, making it very difficult to balance the budget without severe cutbacks in other programs. In spite of claims of more jobs created and population increases, revenue is down due to factors such as the crisis in agriculture, costs of fighting forest fires and a strong Canadian dollar which hurts an exporting province like ours. As well, the self-inflicted revenue hit by making Winnipeg casinos smoke free has cost an estimated loss of $26 million to date. It looks like the Doer government may have to freeze health spending, a chilling prospect for this administration, which according to PC leader Stuart Murray has "a spending problem". What's the total spending picture for medicare in Canada? At the end of last year the Canadian Institute for Health Information claimed the costs for 2003 was $121.4 billion, an increase of 4.6% from 2002. This is estimated to be the total cash spent by governments, health insurance plans and individuals, an increase more than the rest of the nation's economy. The C.I.H.I. also show that Canada spends less on health per capita than the USA. One could ask if it is possible to spend any more? Can our taxpayers afford yearly 4.6% increases? Federal Finance Minister Goodale says we cannot, and money must be spent "smarter."
