Trudeau is joining Canada's premiers at the table today where he is set to offer them a significant increase toward health-care funding. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

By Derek Craddock

HEALTH-CARE FUNDING

While survey takers say yes, unions say no to public money for private care

Feb 7, 2023 | 1:00 PM

When it comes to fixing health care in the province and the country, it appears many people want more funding but are open to private options.

Those were some of the findings that came from a recent survey by the research company Ipsos.

The survey comes as the prime minister and premiers meet for a series of talks on the country’s health-care system. Premiers like Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe are pressing for more federal funding for health care.

READ MORE: Moe lays out expectations ahead of health-care meeting

The survey found that about 86 per cent of respondents want more federal funding for health-care services. However, close to 60 per cent believe provinces should show the federal government a plan on how to deliver better care to get those federal dollars. About 41 per cent say the provinces should decide how to spend the needed healthcare funds without any conditions.

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Those numbers, however, were different for survey takers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba as only 45 per cent want more funding and decisions coming from the feds while 55 per cent want the province to show its plan.

Unions like the SGEU have read the report and have been vocal about health-care funding and what these meetings could bring about.

“Funding must come from both the federal and provincial levels of government to ensure the health care system remains sustainable and provides the kind of care that people need and deserve,” President Tracy Sauer said.

Sauer noted the current Saskatchewan government hasn’t appeared willing to work with the feds to help direct funds to where they are needed the most, adding the Sask. Party is more ideologically bound to use public funds for private care.

That debate on private versus public health care options was also brought up in the Ipsos survey. More than half of Prairie residents who responded said they support the idea of private options for those who can afford it, compared to 59 per cent nationally.

Sauer, however, does not agree.

“Private health care options erode public health care delivery. Private clinics will recruit health care staff at higher wages and benefits, leaving the public system scrambling for staff,” she said. “This will continue to drain the budget available to the public health care system until it suffers even greater collapse.”

She said the province also needs to work on recruiting and retaining its workers, something she feels is not being taken seriously.

Meanwhile, Karen Wasylenko, president of the Health Sciences Association of Saskatchewan (HSAS) said right now the province is treating the symptoms of a disease and that disease is underfunding the health-care system.

“All funding should go to a publicly funded, publicly administered and publicly delivered system, as there is more accountability for how the funding is utilized,” she said in a statement. “Under resourcing of publicly funded, publicly delivered health care, whether by a deficiency in federal or provincial dollars, pushes opinions towards a seemingly inevitable conclusion. If the public system can’t deliver, what are the options?”

Carla Beck, the leader of the NDP agrees saying any new funding needs to be given to the frontlines and not to be used to expand American-style for-profit healthcare.

paNOW has reached out to the Ministry of Health for comment on the survey and has not received a response.

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derek.craddock@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @PA_Craddock