Private Sector Can Help to Improve Public Health Care, Business LeadersTell Romanow Commission

May 31, 2002

The private sector can make a real contribution to sustaining and improving the public health care system in Canada, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) says in a 32-page submission to the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada.

“In health care as in economic growth, Canadians should be proud of our past achievements, but we can and must do better. In the shared enterprise of providing universal access to high quality and timely health care for Canadians, business can help,” said David Stewart-Patterson, the Council’s Senior Vice President, Policy, in an appearance today in Toronto before Commissioner Roy Romanow.

The Council noted a wide range of avenues for increased private sector involvement in health care, including innovation, human resource policies, community investment and the provision of expertise, access to capital, support services and clinical services.

The Council said that provincial governments could reinforce efforts to improve efficiency by converting much of their health care bureaucracies into Crown corporations. In raising this possibility, Mr. Stewart-Patterson emphasized that the quality of governance would be critical to their effectiveness.

“A Crown corporation is by its very nature a compromise, not a silver bullet. But health care is one field in which its mix of public ownership and corporate discipline could be especially effective in combining the strengths of the public and private sectors to drive forward an ambitious agenda of health care reform.”

The Council’s submission examined the health care challenge facing Canadians in terms of sustainability, fairness and efficiency, and noted the strong links between economic growth and health care spending. The issue of sustainability therefore must not be addressed only in terms of the capacity of governments to finance the public portion of the health care system.

“Whether Canadians pay their bills for health care directly, through private insurance or through their taxes, the money has to come out of the same paycheque,” Mr. Stewart-Patterson said. “If we want to sustain high quality health care for all Canadians, we have to get the economy right.”

Copies of Mr. Stewart-Patterson’s presentation and of the Council’s detailed submission to the Commission are available on request from the CCCE headquarters or can be downloaded from its web site at www.ceocouncil.ca.

The CCCE, formerly the Business Council on National Issues, is composed of the chief executive officers of 150 leading Canadian enterprises. Its members head companies that administer in excess of $2.1 trillion in assets, have annual revenues of more than $500 billion and account for a significant majority of Canada’s private sector investment, exports, training and research and development.