MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 20, 2008

Castonguay recommendations would erode public health care, says Council of Canadians

The Council of Canadians is calling on the Harper government to live up to its federal responsibilities and defend the Canada Health Act in response to the report by the Quebec Task Force on the Funding of the Health Care System headed by Claude Castonguay.

“We are encouraged to see that Quebec Health Minister Philippe Couillard has been critical of some aspects of the report,” says Guy Caron, Health Care Campaigner for the Council of Canadians. “However, we are concerned that his willingness to consider deductibles and other measures that would violate the principles of Medicare.”

The Council of Canadians maintains that the report’s calls for an increased role for private insurance, the establishment of user fees and a provision to allow doctors to practice in both the public and private systems would be an outright breach of the Canada Health Act.

Castonguay is claiming that the implementation of the report would not violate the Canada Health Act although it calls for a review of services offered by the provincial plan and openly challenges the Canada Health Act by arguing that it “is contested by the Quebec government and hampers progress in defining the public health systems of the provinces.”

The Council of Canadians is also urging that the federal government strengthen public health care by increasing funding to provinces in order to cover 25 percent  of health costs as recommended by the 2002 Romanow Commission on the Future of Health Care.

“The Canada Health Act is clearly under threat in Quebec, and this could have implications across the country” says Caron. “It is unacceptable for federal Health Minister Tony Clement not to take action.”

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For more information, contact:
Dylan Penner, Media Officer: Tel.: (613) 233-4487, ext. 249;

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