Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to the motion. It calls on the government to stand up for our most cherished value but unfortunately it picks a method which will not work. We need to look at the whole health care crisis as one of planning.
The 1999 budget in terms of the initial possibility provided a $3.5 billion infusion as well as the other $8 billion. There was an opportunity for the provincial and territorial governments to begin some planning. Also the 1999 budget provided real money for investing in health information systems that would begin to look at what was committed in the social union framework agreement in terms of dealing with information that could help Canadians understand how their health care dollars are being spent, by whom and with what results.
What is happening with the provinces is similar to when I had to try to explain to my father why I was asking for a raise in my allowance.
I do not quite understand this crisis. We heard time after time in the finance committee that this was a crisis of mismanagement not a crisis of dollars. Patching it with more infusions in a piecemeal way will not remotely help our health care system. It reminds me of Michael Ignatieff's statement that the most important barrier to progressive movements in this country is some sort of nostalgic vision of a paradise in the past.
Money is not going to fix it without an absolute commitment to real reform. Time after time the finance committee heard, even from the employer committee of health care of Ontario, that putting more money into the health care system even if it were available is not the answer. International comparisons indicate that the total level of financial support for Canadian health care as a percentage of gross national product is among the highest in the world.
We emphasized the need to start focusing on an integrated system of delivering health care rather than continuing to support the current system of inefficient, cost ineffective suppliers and stakeholders. Our focus is for the best quality health care at the lowest cost, a goal which we believe is shared by all levels of government.
The Canadian Health Care Association said it was aware that money alone would not solve all of the challenges facing the health care system. We have to commit to do things differently. The federal government must set an example. The pointing of fingers in all levels of government should stop. We have to regain our position as the moral authority but that is not done by continuing to patch a system that needs real reform.
Monique Bégin in her speech to the health care economists at the Emmett Hall lecture last August said that we have to remember that between 1985 and 1995 Canada had increased its total health expenditures dramatically without offering better services, or more services, or different services to the public. Canada had become and still is the second most expensive country in the world in terms of total health care expenditures.
We have to figure out what does and does not work and stop doing what does not work. It is a concern of mine that continuing to patch a system that is inherently not a system, a patchwork quilt of non-systems, is a huge barrier to progress. It is a huge barrier to the ultimate sustainability of the the system. It is too important to get on with real accountability.
It is important that we listen to Doug Angus of the University of Ottawa and Queen's University who said that significant cost savings are valuable. His 1995 paper said that there would be a $7 billion in savings in the system if people were in the right level of care. We need to benchmark better practices and share those across Canada.
We need to invest. Hopefully the CIHR will do that. The Council for Health Research said that we can no longer just do disease based health research. We have to do real research on the health care system itself to ensure we effectively use our health care dollars in health care delivery.
This nation needs a plan. The plan must be based on accountability. It cannot be some romantic vision of doing things the same old way. We have to do things differently. The British Medical Journal reported that if the airline system were run the same way the health care system is run in North America in terms of accountability, a 747 would be coming down once a week and we would be doing something about it.
If 20% to 30% of admissions for seniors are because of drug interactions that are totally preventable, we should be moving on those policies. The minute the smoking rate comes down in youth, we see a decrease in dollars for prenatal care, for premature babies and for post-operative pneumonia. Removing scatter rugs from the homes of seniors would dramatically prevent broken hips. There are serious issues we have to get on with in terms of prevention.
I am totally frustrated when childhood asthma goes up that people just ask for more respirators. We cannot do this. Air quality goes down, childhood asthma goes up. We have to deal with the air quality.
It is extraordinarily important to note when looking at this big underfunding crisis, which unfortunately is supported by our NDP colleagues across the way, that the underfunding is going to get us into big trouble. The evil dark forces from the Fraser Institute to some of the medical associations are crying. In terms of Alberta and Ontario, I believe they are desperately trying to break medicare. They are trying to show us that there will never be enough money, that the government pockets will never be deep enough and that the only possible solution is privatized medicine and user fees. We know user fees do not work. They are only a deterrent to the most fragile in our society, the pregnant teens and the fragile diabetics.
Private hospitals cost more money to society. I was in Alberta last month when the Calgary hospital was blown up. It is extraordinary that we ended up with this worry about waiting lists. At least seven operating rooms were blown up and now private operating rooms are needed to help with the waiting lists. This is not okay and I must say I am not sure that it was by accident.
There is absolute mismanagement or misplanning. Even Duncan Sinclair said that the hospital restructuring process in Ontario was done backward. If we build up the community support, we will eventually need fewer hospitals and fewer beds. Doing it in the opposite order creates a crisis.
A crisis has been created similar to what Michael Decter talked about in that there would be a huge crisis if bank branches were closed and people were not taught how to use ATMs. It is exactly the same in closing hospitals without having the supports and services in the community.
We must be smarter. We have to talk about real outcomes in health care. How much money we spend is no longer good enough. Mr. Harris spent $400 million in the severance package to lay off nurses, $400 million to hire them back and $200 million to pay the consultants to tell them how to fire them and hire them back. This is not good spending of health care dollars. I do not want $1 billion spent that way and I do not think we should give him another $1 billion so he can do the same thing again.
It is extraordinary that we are in a position of being blackmailed to give people more money when there is no evidence as to how it is being spent. Canadians want it to be spent properly. They do not want us throwing money at things if it is not.
The social union framework agreement says that we will share best practices with transparency and accountability. When I chaired the World Health Organization's breakfast on TB, Canada did not submit its TB numbers for last year. We have a zero at the World Health Organization because the provinces would not hand in their TB numbers. This is not co-operation. It is no way to plan a health care system and we have to get on with it.
Harvard medical school professors have shown us that in the for profit hospitals the costs were 25% higher than in the not for profit hospitals. That is not in keeping with the social union framework agreement. In the social union framework agreement we promised that there would be an equitable way of looking at things. I am hugely enthusiastic and optimistic. We can have a perfect health care system with 9.3% of the GDP.
We need the provinces to come to the table with their best practices. Let New Brunswick speak about its level of care. Let us see the fabulous software program from McGill dealing with drug interactions which could prevent unnecessary admissions. Let Edmonton bring its knowledge on the flu epidemic. Let B.C. bring its prevention knowledge.
If at the meeting with the minister in May every province shows what it is doing perfectly well, we would have a fabulous health care system. It will take them to drawing down the dollars that have not been used in Quebec, Newfoundland and Ontario. We have to get information technologies in there and make it an accountable system which protects all Canadians, one that we can be totally confident in.