Liberal Leader Mark Carney is facing criticism from political opponents and advocacy organizations after being pressed on how he would defend public health care from privatization in provinces like Alberta.
Carney, speaking in Calgary Wednesday, was asked how he would enforce the Canada Health Act when some provincial governments are promoting and funding more private health options.
“First off, I’m a believer in working with provinces; a believer again, and I’m going to go back broken record, but a believer in results, getting results for Canadians,” Carney said.
“Obviously, we will work to ensure that all Albertans’ rights, Canadians’ rights, are fully respected, in that, so, in a pragmatic way and a direct way, again by working with the province in order to make sure that happens.”
The Canada Health Act is Canada’s federal legislation for publicly funded health care insurance.
The policy strives to “protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well-being of residents of Canada and to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers.”
The Canadian Health Coalition, a public advocacy organization focused on the improvement and preservation of public health care, said it is deeply concerned about Carney’s comments.
“Mr. Carney failed to address Canadians’ concerns over the increased role of private, for-profit companies in providing medically necessary health services,” said Steven Staples, national policy director of the Canadian Health Coalition.
“Anyone who wants to be prime minister can never dodge their responsibility to explicitly and clearly commit themselves to defending universal public health care and the Canada Health Act.”
Earlier this week, Alberta announced plans to change its surgical-care model, offering public funds to privately run surgical facilities in an attempt to make the system more efficient and lower wait times.
Critics argued the changes would only accelerate the addition of more privatized care in the province.
The federal NDP, who last week took aim at Alberta and what they called the “Americanization” of public health care, criticized Carney for not condemning Alberta’s health-care policy.
In response to Carney’s comments, the NDP reshared Leader Jagmeet Singh’s comments from that announcement on April 1, saying Alberta is “ground zero for the privatization of health care.”
“We’re going to do something that the Liberals, and Mark Carney is part of the same tradition sadly, that they were not able to, and they didn’t desire to, enforce the Canada Health Act,” Singh said.
“We’ve got a strong law that says you can’t privatize, you can’t have cash for care. But they haven’t used that. We are going to enforce the Canada Health Act to end privatization in our country.”
Earlier this year, then-health minister Mark Holland sent a letter to provinces and territories emphasizing the importance of upholding the health act.
“A key aspect in upholding these principles is to ensure that patients do not face charges for medically necessary care when a service would otherwise be covered if provided by a physician,” the letter read.
“When innovations are introduced into our health care system, it is important to ensure that they benefit all Canadians equally. Unfortunately, over the past few years we have seen that this is not the case in all circumstances and is resulting in patients being charged for medically necessary care.”
With files from The Canadian Press
