Health Accord

The Issue:

Back in 2004, Paul Martin’s governing liberals signed a 10-year federal-provincial-territorial Health Accord that was supposed to ‘heal health care for a generation’. But the reality is the Paul Martin government gave the provinces a blank cheque with no strings attached. The “buy transformative change” advice prescribed by the Romanow-led Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care was not heeded. Well the Health Accord is up for renewal in 2014 and this time we need ‘strings attched’. This time we need to get more accountability and value for our money, and we need real transformative change.

Resources:

Time for Transformative Change: A Review of the 2004 Health Accord, Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, March 2012

Secure the Future of Medicare: A Call to Care – Brief to the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology on its Review of the progress in implementing the 2004 Health Accord, Canadian Health Coalition, November 10, 2011

Health Accord – Report Card Canadian Health Coalition, September 2004

Review of the progress in implementing the 2004 Health Accord Canadian Health Coalition remarks to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health, May 2008

A Nurses Perspective: Review of the progress in implementing the 2004 Health Accord Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, June 2008

Submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health in relation to its review of the 10-Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care CUPE, June 2008

Rekindling Reform: Health Care Renewal in Canada, 2003–2008 (download summary) Health Council of Canada, June 2008