Where does the money come from?

[Guest Turquoise678]

Romanow talks in his report about setting up funding (i.e. for diagnostic services, primary health care, etc) - where does he suggest this money come from? I know he emphasizes more federal spending, but the government tells us there is simply not enough money to go around. Does Romanow come up with any alternatives? How does he suggest the government "find" the extra money?

 

I posted this in another forum but got "0" replies... hope you guys have something to contribute!

 

Thanks

[Guest ClimbOn]

One of the weaknesses of the Romanow report is that he didn't specify a source of where the money should come from. Unlike the Kirby report, which suggests raising money from a permanent tax called the Variable National Health Care Insurance Premium (what a mouthful!), Romanow suggested there's no need for additional taxation. Extra money would somehow appear from surpluses....or drop from the heavens......:lol

[Guest byjude]

I suggest we tax the oompa loompas.

[Guest coastal79]

On a related note, what do y'all think about some of the ideas Klein is tossing around in Alberta? The one that caught my attention the other day was an income tax of 1.5%, the money from which is deposited into a medical savings account every year. That account is charged whenever you access health care. Whatever money isn't spent is deducted from the taxes one has to pay, which provides an incentive for not going to the doctor for something frivolous, or, for going to see your FP or a Walk-in rather than going to Emerg, which is more expensive. Any HC costs over and above what is in your medical savings account are covered by the governement (but it all comes out of your taxes anyways). I believe that if this is implemented, they plan to exempt low-income workers and possibly certain other groups (not sure which). I think this is a fantastic idea because one of the big reasons for high costs in public HC is the lack of each individual's awareness of what he or she costs the system when they do certain things. Ideological differences aside, I've gotta give Ralphie boy some respect for tackling HC while he's still rolling in the petro-dollars rather than waiting around and simply throwing his surplus money at the current system.

[Guest strider2004]

I think this is a fantastic idea because one of the big reasons for high costs in public HC is the lack of each individual's awareness of what he or she costs the system when they do certain things

 

I actually don't think that's such a good idea. I'd rather leave the health care and investigation treatment making to the physicians, and not the patients. I'd hate for someone to ignore their chest pain because they'd rather save the $500 and wait until the morning while they're slowly letting the anterior wall of their heart infarct. I'd much rather see money spent on education about the services that are available after hours. What they need are more triage centres (aka walk-in clinics) that can deal with the more minor problems after hours and family physicians that leave a little extra breathing space in their schedules for drop-in patients.

 

Once a patient gets into a medical centre door(walk-in, doctor's office) they can be assessed and triaged accordingly.

 

 

In terms of Roy Romanow's proposals, I believe they were based on predicted surpluses for the following years(albeit almost the entire surplus). Opponents said that his proposals far exceeeded the surplus, but they didn't do the right math on the report. It's actually a lot less that some media has stated. The gov't actually came up with the right amount of money in last year's budget.