Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to use my Member’s statement to comment on an article from the Globe and Mail regarding health care that recently caught my eye. In Canada it’s generally assumed that universal health care -- and that means timely access to affordable health services -- improves the health of socially disadvantaged groups. Research performed at the Institute for Clinical Evaluation Services tested that assumption, but as published in the journal Health Affairs, the results of the study contradicts the assumption.
The research team found that people with low income and/or low levels of education suffered from higher than normal incidences of cardiovascular disease. It’s no surprise and a well-known situation. The researchers tried to determine if universal access to health services would alter that finding. The research showed that the poor use more health services than the wealthy, but that does not mean they get better health outcomes. To quote the Globe author: The poor visit physicians and hospitals more often, not because it’s free, but because they are sicker. All of us, whether rich or poor, use health care services when we have to, when we are sick. Few of us use health care services in a preventive way.
The message in the research finding is this: universal health care does not get us healthy and keep us healthy. Medicare is not the silver bullet to ensure a healthy population. What we need are tools to get us healthy in the first place, to attack the causes of poor health.
In Canada we spend about 40 percent of our budgets on health care, about 25 percent on education and only 15 percent on social welfare programs. By comparison, European countries spend twice as much as we do on social welfare programs, and the result of that spending is that Europeans spend less on health and have better health outcomes.
We need to put greater effort into tackling poverty, low education levels, poor and inequitable housing. Improvements in these areas will create healthier environments and, by default, healthier citizens. As we embark on the development of an Anti-Poverty Strategy or framework, Mr. Speaker, we would be well advised to consider these findings. Throwing more money at health is not the answer. Universal health care is not the answer. Until we improve living conditions for the socially disadvantaged in our territory, we cannot hope for universally healthy residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
