Money, Politics, and Health Care: Reconstructing the Federal-Provincial Partnership (Institute for Research on Public Policy)

Current tensions in intergovernmental fiscal arrangements are an important impediment to improving the health care system. At the same time, the failure of provinces to correct health care problems acts a serious irritant in intergovernmental relations, creating a vicious cycle where deficiencies in intergovernmental fiscal relations make health care reform difficult while failures to effect health care reform increase conflict between the provinces and the federal government. This collection of essays analyses key issues in federal-provincial health care relations, particularly the fiscal component. The authors look at why there is a role for the federal government in health care and consider the critical issues in recent intergovernmental political battles over this role. The issues of whether the vertical federal-provincial fiscal imbalance is myth or reality, how much the federal government does and should contribute financially to provincial health care programs, and methods for settling disputes, such as those over user fees, are discussed. The authors also provide concrete proposals for reconstructing the federal-provincial partnership. The contributors include Keith Banting (Queen's University), Robin Boadway (Queen's University), David Cameron (University of Toronto), Harvey Lazar, Jennifer McCrea-Logie, France St-Hilaire, and Jean-Francois Tremblay.