OTTAWA, ONTARIO - The Council of Canadians is pleased with the proposed expansion of public health care in Canada as suggested yesterday by Roy Romanow, Chair of the Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada. In a speech foreshadowing the release of his report, due next month, Commissioner Romanow laid out a clear case for expansion of publicly-funded health care in Canada.

"Commissioner Romanow has demonstrated that he has heard the thousands of Canadians who presented before the Commission," said Anil Naidoo, Health Care Campaigner for the 100,000-member Council of Canadians. "He recognizes queue-jumping through private diagnostic services and parallel-private delivery as threatening our health care system. Many of the things he mentioned in his speech directly relate to changes the Council has been advocating."

Romanow's speech suggested that the Commission's report will recommend expanding Medicare coverage to drugs and home care, not currently included as part of the public health care system. According to the former Premier of Saskatchewan, these recommendations will require a sizeable infusion of public money in the short term, but will lead to more efficiency, greater access and significant savings in the long term. He also calls for transformative change including moving from an illness to wellness system and instituting community-based primary health care reform.

"This Liberal government has promised that once the deficit was eliminated, the sacrifices endured by millions of Canadians will end and social programs will be rebuilt. Canadian citizens will hold the government to this promise."

"This speech clearly outlines the reality that we all pay for health care, directly, through our taxes, or through insurance premiums. The most efficient delivery system is through single-payer funding and non-profit delivery. Once the Romanow Commission has reported it will be up to Canadians to ensure that our politicians institute the progressive recommendations of the report," concludes Naidoo.