Independent study validates Canada's Medicare program

'Public support for physician and hospital services seems warranted in the interest of further reducing inequities in health.'

Ottawa (26 June 2008) - An independent study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health confirms that the introduction of public Medicare in Canada has made a major impact on reducing inequities in health care.

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) says the research validates what defenders of Medicare have been saying for decades - "Sickness doesn't discriminate neither should our health care system."

In the first 25 years after it was introduced in Canada, Medicare was the largest contributing factor to reducing deaths "amenable to medical care" and in "reducing socio-economic differences in mortality," the study concludes.

It adds: "Public support for physician and hospital services seems warranted in the interest of further reducing inequities in health."

However, one area of concern identified by the study was a relatively poor performance of public health initiatives.

"Public health initiatives also have a potentially important, but as yet unrealized, role in further reducing mortality disparities in Canada," the study noted.

In another article in the same journal, researchers Barbara Starfield and Anne-Emanuelle Birn point out the important role that public universal health care, and other social programs, play.

"Canada's National Health Insurance is one example of a universal societal program providing access to a primary care-oriented health system. In just 25 years, social class disparities in causes of death amenable to health services interventions were reduced much more than were social disparities in other causes of death," the researchers say. NUPGE

More information:

NUPGE Publications on Medicare
Abstract: Avoidable mortality by neighbourhood income in Canada