Tag Archives: Federal health care funding

Premiers form committees to change no to yes

Former Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow calls them tepid.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is saying no means no.

There is likely more frustration at Victoria’s Premiers’ meeting this week than among the coaching staff of the wilting Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Premiers first arrived after discovering the Federal government had unilaterally decided on what the funding side of the next health care accord would look like.

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Unilateral Federal funding decision shouldn’t be a surprise, even if it makes little sense

Less than a week before Christmas Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty marched into a luncheon meeting of his provincial counterparts and told them what the Federal contribution to health care funding would be to 2024.

“They just landed this on the table over the lunch hour,” Manitoba’s finance minister told the Globe and Mail. “It caught us all by surprise.”

The “take it or leave it” deal includes:

  • a six per cent annual funding increase for three years to 2017
  • funding increases tied to nominal* GDP beginning in 2018 with a three per cent floor
  • new funding would be on a per capita basis only – weighting for equalization would be removed from the Canada Health Transfer
  • no strings are attached, although provinces are “encouraged” to experiment with private delivery of public health care

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