All additional health care funding is critical

As federal, provincial and territorial health ministers continue to negotiate a new health accord, Canada’s nurses are calling on all governments to focus on what is at stake for Canadians and the future of health care.

The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) is recommending that Canada’s First Ministers implement a health and social accord that includes:

•     Stable federal health care funding (to a minimum of 25% by 2025)
•     Coordinated health human resources planning
•     A national prescription drug plan (Pharmacare)
•     A Canadian strategy for healthy aging
•     Improved access to health services in home and community settings
•     Improved indigenous health

“From what we are hearing from the current negotiations, it is being presented as an ‘either-or’ proposition,” said CFNU president Linda Silas. “Nurses know that the answer is both; we need new investments and new initiatives to address the needs of patients, and we believe new funding must be tied to health care.”

CFNU believes that the next health accord must include increased health transfers which are assured to go to patients, communities and better health care. The new accord must also include measures that address the challenges faced by health care, including addressing the need for improved access to home care, pharmacare, mental health and Indigenous health issues.

“Canada needs to embrace cost-saving measures, such as a national pharmacare strategy,” said Silas. “As much as $14 billion per year is being squandered because our governments cannot commit to one national pharmacare system.”

Canada’s nurses are calling upon federal ministers to work together to create a national prescription drug program, to reach an agreement on 25 per cent (25%) federal health care funding by 2025, and to include real targets that will be administered and delivered by the provinces under a federal umbrella.