Calls for Increased Federal Funding and More Comprehensive Health Care

STATUS OF WOMEN--Calls for Increased Federal Funding and More Comprehensive Health Care

The Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women today released its brief to the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada, headed by Roy Romanow.

"Council wants the federal government to make a stronger commitment to maintain, strengthen and broaden the Canada Health Act", said Rita Warner, chair of the advisory council. "But it also wants the federal government to step up to the plate and increase its level of cash contributions to the provinces to at least 25 per cent of the costs."

"We are also concerned that a number of areas essential to good health care are still not fully covered under medicare," she said. "Most people are not covered for prescription drugs, eye care, or dental care unless they have work-related health-care plans."

The council also called for the federal government to work with the provinces to develop new programs for Pharmacare and home care, as well as for better funding and Canada-wide standards for long-term care.

In addition, the council asserts that there is considerable room for improvement and change in the way health care is organized and delivered. It advocates for more community clinics and for preventive and holistic approaches to health care.

In its brief, the council points out that women are more likely to be responsible for family care-giving and to perform certain kinds of care-giving in the health-care system. Women also have specific health concerns and medical conditions that sometimes go ignored by health researchers and health-care providers. Elderly women are more likely to suffer from disabling conditions because, on average, women live longer than men.

Social factors known to affect health status, such as poverty, also disproportionately affect women.

The council based its brief on the values of equity, social inclusion and the dignity of the individual because these values are important to most women, to most Nova Scotians and to most Canadians.

"Women have good reason to be concerned about the future of health care because gender differences and women's health issues are often ignored in health research, by health-care providers, or in the organization and funding of health care," said Ms. Warner.

She said that she hopes the commission will seriously consider council's recommendations as it deliberates its final recommendations to the federal government.

"Along with many other Canadians, we are very concerned about what will be in the final report," she said.