What does it mean for medicare to be sustainable?

Sustainability is always the most complicated stage in putting together a plan or system of operation. This is the phase of maintenance and upholding of the system, in this case, the Canadian medicare. For medicare to be sustainable, it has to ensure that enough resources are available to provide adequate care for the ones who need it over a long-term period of time in the health sector. Romanow explains how now, medicare has become close to impossible to sustain for various reasons. These include the high cost, it taking too much of the governments’ budget, and also it being a barrier in lowering taxes since 7% of them is directed to health care. There exists three essential dimensions that are imperative in order to sustain this system. These are services, needs, and resources. Services, being that they are accessible on a regular basis. Needs, meaning being able to evaluate weather or not the health care measures up to all of it’s Canadian patient’s needs compared to other countries. And last but not least, having the proper resources, in other words not only fiscal but human resources, such as health care providers along with physical resources as well. Romanow also discusses how most Canadian hospitals are mainly non-profit institutions but the possibility of increasing private for profit services can make the system more efficient.  By doing so, they offer a greater amount of choice and resources.  Nevertheless, there is always room for improvement even if our medicare has been doing a good job in meeting Canadians’ needs. With the private clinics and hospitals there are three main grey areas involved. Patients can run to a private practice clinic to take x-rays or quicker test results to later pursue their treatment in the public hospitals, which is considered as “jumping the queue”, or cutting in line and speed up the process. The other reasons are that patients on CSST get quicker treatment so they can quickly return to work and also special surgeries are offered faster at a private clinic. Romanow gives us these important points but furthermore adds that turning to private for profit institutions only makes the situation unfair. It defies the main purpose of medicare, which is that money cannot get you better service and that we are all at par. Health care in Canada could evolve positively in numerous ways such as setting a user fee, which is one of Romanow’s discussed solutions. In the end, with every thought out resolution, there will be controversy and maybe even havoc considering that we as Canadians have it good. The poor might uproar and protest, nevertheless something has to be done in order to keep medicare running and even maybe ameliorate as a system, whether this is done by forcing people to start Medical Saving Accounts or pay for their piece of the medicare pie in every paycheck or just have a user fee. What ever the case may be we have to work as a community to better our situation.