Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that the member for Kamloops, Thompson and Highland Valleys has a problem with his memory today. Indeed, he has probably forgotten the fact that it was the Liberal Party that brought forward medicare in the first place.
Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time today with the member for York West.
I am very honoured to take part in the debate about health care. As I observed and listened to the New Democratic Party bring forward this issue once again in the House, I think forward to what its campaign will be like in the next election. I know it will be able to save a lot of money on stationery presenting public policy documents because, quite simply, its whole public policy is based on two words, and that is, more money.
In the last couple of days we have heard the NDP members talk about the problems at CBC. It simply needs more money. When they speak about unemployment insurance, it simply needs more money. Today, on health care, it is more of the same, more money for health care.
Canada spends close to 10% of its gross domestic product on health care. Canada is one of the highest spenders in the western world on health care.
It is only reasonable that policymakers would sit down and ask themselves how much money they would need to spend on health care and what is applicable to our population. Does that mean that we are discriminating and getting a poorer quality of health care? Of course not. The problem with our health care system is clear to me: We are not getting value for our money. It is not about spending on health care.
We have had this constant debate that the federal government is not carrying its share of the health care issue. We contribute 33 cents on every dollar to health care. It is not as high as it was when it was originally brought in but we cannot ignore the whole issue of tax points, even though everyone wants to forget they exist.
Tax points occurred when the premiers and the federal government sat down and decided that rather than the federal government taxing people, collecting the money and then turning around and giving it to the provinces in transfer payments, that it would allow the provinces more tax room to tax directly and collect that money and spend it on health care. Today, provinces, like the province of Ontario, choose to ignore that part of our history.
I am not making these things up. Anyone can go down to the archives and get various documents and agreements that were signed at the time when provinces agreed to this kind of formula. Today they want to ignore that. Mr. Harris in my province has caused the spending of something like $6 million to carry on an ongoing battle with the federal government for no particular purpose at all, as far as I can see.
The fact is that we continue to spend significant amounts of money on health care. I did my own analysis to show that the province of Ontario was not even spending the money we gave it for health care.
We hear from members of the New Democratic Party that it is simply more money that is needed. They do not have any ideas about how they want to change the health care system. The health care system is important to Canadians.
Since we are giving anecdotal information, my commitment to a publicly funded health care system is also based on a bit of a life experience. I remember being on a dock down in Key West. The next door neighbour of a friend of ours who was a retired doctor from Illinois had been out fishing with a friend. His friend collapsed with cardiac arrest on the dock. His friend said to the doctor, “Do not take me to a doctor. I cannot afford it”. I thought that was such a great statement, because he was saying it to his friend who was a doctor.
Most of us in this Chamber would agree that we do not want that situation in Canada. It is important to maintain a publicly funded system.
Having said that, there are things we have to fix. The problem with this whole file is that the federal government is seen by many of the provinces as a dispenser of cheques. That is not the answer to the problem. That is not the answer to this file. We should look at the way the country is changing, its demographics. Our population is aging.
Many, many governments before us of all stripes had problems with health care. I would like to reiterate that the New Democratic Party was in control of the government in the province of Ontario during a significant period of time and our health care system eroded during its watch as well. If we are honest to the public, we should say that yes, we think there are some problems with the health care system but we have to have a comprehensive plan to make it better. It is not just those two words the New Democratic Party constantly uses, more money. It is not about more money.
There are problems in our primary care service. There are people who are not receiving adequate medical care from their GPs because the provinces have developed systems of remunerating doctors which quite frankly such as in my own province discriminate against the doctors for working certain long hours. It is hard for people to get 24 hour health care in the province of Ontario. It is because of the way governments have structured the payment system for doctors.
We have heard in the House that we have to have a publicly funded health care system. Let us be honest with ourselves. The reality is that what most people think of health care will probably have a broader definition than that of a good number of politicians. They probably think of chiropractic medicine. They may think of pharmaceuticals. They may even think of naturopathic medicine. If we actually looked at the total expenditures on what people think is health care in this country, 50% of it is probably privately funded already.
I think we are talking about the elements and the aspects of a health care system which includes health care workers, nurses and doctors and institutions we still feel should be controlled by the public because of some of the very reasons that are enshrined in the Canada Health Act, accessibility. That is the basic principle which I want to address today.
We need to change the way we do health care, primary and permanent care. We have not developed as a nation a full appreciation of how to deal with permanent care. Indeed, Mr. Harris in my province said, “Gee, we have all of these beds and we have too many people using them. Really what we need is a home care system so we will close the hospitals”. He forgot the other side of the argument. The other side of the argument is that we have to enforce a home care system. We have to have places where people can go, whether they are geriatric cases or otherwise, nursing homes or other facilities.
Constant studies have been done. An empirical study was done by going to people who were either in nursing homes or in acute care in their own homes. They were asked the very fundamental question would they rather be there or would they rather be in an institution like a hospital. The majority of the people said, “We would rather be in a home care facility where we have loved ones around us assisting us. And when it comes to dying, heaven forbid that we can die with dignity and respect”. Lo and behold when we take those figures and start extrapolating, it is $2,500 more costly to get this service in an institution. It costs the hospital.
Those are the kinds of changes that are needed and the federal government is not in the position to do that. The only position we have is to tell the provinces, with our money in our back pocket, that we have to move in the area of home care. I do not hear members of the NDP talking about this. I hear them saying to just give them more money and that will solve the problem. It is not going to happen that way.
We have not put the investment in technology. We should be able to track patients across the country. We cannot even do something simple, use the technology that is available to us today, to simply track patient records. We cannot even do that. We talk about investments in MRI equipment and all kinds of other new technology. We have not done that. We have not put our money in those areas.
We need to restructure the health care system. I would be the first to agree with that but we cannot simply talk about more money. We have to talk about the real things that matter to people.
That is why I am having a health care forum. The provincial members of parliament in Ontario do not care about this area. That is why I am having a health care forum in my riding and bringing in a former assistant deputy minister of health. It is to talk with the people and ask them how they want the health care system to change. It is not about giving us more money. It is about making the thing work so it protects our health.