Party leaders need to address the threat to health care from Trump
Medicare is at the top of the list of things the U.S. would take away from Canadians should Trump ever succeed in turning Canada into the 51st state, observed Steven Staples, National Director of Policy and Advocacy for the Canadian Health Coalition during a webinar on Monday, March 25.
The webinar entitled Election 2025: Protecting Medicare in Canada, kicked off the Canadian Health Coalition’s commentary on the federal election.
Watch the exchange between Staples and myself on U.S. President Trump musing about bringing the U.S. health system to Canada:
“In America, health care is a big business. In Canada, it’s a right”: Carney
Upon becoming the Liberal Party Leader and future Prime Minister on March 9, Mark Carney said, “In America, health care is a big business. In Canada, it’s a right.”
When Carney mentioned pharmacare and dental care in his acceptance speech he suggested it be available “for everyone who needs it.” That may sound like a “fill-in-the-gaps” approach, rather than the single-payer program as it is legislated.
But days before the election call on March 24, Carney’s government signed a single-payer, universal pharmacare deal with the Yukon, which joins Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, and Manitoba in the federally-funded program. Newly appointed Health Minister Kamal Khera said that a re-elected Liberal government would work towards pharmacare deals with the nine provinces and territories that have yet to sign an agreement.
“Under the Carney government, we were able to sign an agreement just two days ago with Yukon, and we have been able to sign four agreements with different provinces and territories already,” Khera said at the March 22 press conference in response to a question from Hill Times Health about whether agreements would continue to move ahead if her party is re-elected.
“We will make sure that nobody loses their dental care:” Poilievre
The day after the webinar, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, who voted against the pharmacare and dental care programs, said if elected Prime Minister, he would not rescind them. “We will protect these programs and nobody who has them will lose them,” Poilievre said, offering his most substantial answer yet about the fate of those programs under a Conservative government. “We will make sure that nobody loses their dental care.”
A total of 3.5 million people are registered for the Canadian Dental Care Plan, and 1.7 million have already received dental care. Another 4 million are set to apply in May when the program is opened to 18-64 year-olds. Poilievre doesn’t appear to be committing to those people gaining coverage.
A webinar audience member questioned whether money spent on the military’s budget would be better spent on health care.
On National Defence, the Conservatives say they will maintain Liberal spending increases. The NDP has likewise said it will boost military spending, Staples added. Here is what Staples had to say about military spending, an area he has studied extensively, in the context of protecting health care:
You can view the entire webinar here:
