Take Action! Have your Council Chapter or local group sign onto the Canadian Health Coalition’s “Call to Care”

Canadians need to have their message for a protected, strengthened and extended public health care system heard during the 2014 Health Care Accord negotiations. We can do this through people power – and lots of it! Please ask your Council of Canadians chapter, local community groups, unions, labour councils and others to consider signing onto the Canadian Health Coalition’s “Call to Care.” We’re hoping that thousands of groups, representing concerned people across Canada, will come together to deliver a strong message to provincial, territorial, and federal governments that Canadians want to secure the future of medicare. Below is a list of just a few of those signatories so you can get an idea of the diversity of groups involved. For a full list please go here.

Thank you for taking action in support of public health care!

Adrienne Silnicki
Health Care Campaigner, The Council of Canadians

Secure the Future of Medicare: A Call to Care

SIGN-ON

Health care in Canada is a fundamental right without distinction of race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, political belief, immigration status, and economic or social condition. Organizations representing millions of Canadians will mobilize to defend this right and to ensure that the following principles shape the direction of the Health Accord renewal:

1. The recognition of the highest attainment of health as a fundamental right throughout life and the necessity of preserving public health through active measures of promotion, prevention, and protection including such determinants as housing, food safety, income, education, environment, employment and peace.

2. The recognition that many Aboriginal people have a poor health status and a high burden of disease. The current system is failing and requires a transformation of the relationship between Canada and its Aboriginal people to find solutions together. The Aboriginal people must be at the First Ministers discussions on the Health Accord as these solutions involve all levels of government.

3. The recognition of health care as a public good for which no financial barriers must be erected. We affirm the need for a system of public health care which is organized on the basis of public administration, public insurance and the delivery of services on a public, not-for-profit basis.

4. Opposition to any commercialization and privatization of health care. Therefore the federal government must negotiate a general exclusion of health services and health insurance from all trade agreements.

5. The need for the federal government to fully assume its responsibilities in respect to health, particularly by securing the adequate and predictable federal health transfers and enforcement of the Canada Health Act.

6. The reaffirmation of the original vision of a truly comprehensive public health care system for Canadians providing a continuum of services. The next steps are the expansion of the public system to include a universal Pharmacare plan, a system of home and community care, long-term care, and a strategy for mental health.

7. The need to move towards a community-based, multi-disciplinary team approach to the management, organization and delivery of services, especially in primary care. Levels of services must be sufficient so that the burden of care does not fall on families, mainly women.

8. An accountable health care system through democratic participation and transparent governance at all levels.

9. The recognition that health care workers are critical to the effective operation of the health care system and that decent wages and working conditions are essential to high quality care.

We come together to commit to ensuring that governments throughout Canada renew their commitment to protect and expand Canada’s public health care system to meet the present and future needs of all people living in Canada, based on the principles (public administration, universality, comprehensiveness, accessibility and portability) and conditions (no extra billing or user fees, or queue-jumping) of the Canada Health Act. Regardless of where we live, it is now imperative to reaffirm the social values we all share. These values must guide our collective choices for future of health care. What stands between Medicare and its destruction are the peoples of Canada. Future generations are depending on our vigilance.

If your organization would like to sign-on to this statement, please send your information to: brad@healthcoalition.ca

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