BY DON BUTLER, OTTAWA CITIZEN
OTTAWA — Americans may be deeply divided over health-care reform, but Canadians are increasingly content with their own state-run system, says a major new survey done for Health Canada.
According to the $90,000 survey of 1,750 adults, 44 per cent rate the state of health care in Canada as good or excellent — an increase of seven percentage points since 2007 and 20 points higher than in 2004.
About the same number rate the state of health care as fair. Just one in nine say it’s poor or very poor, half as many as in 2004.
As well, eight in 10 Canadians who have used the health-care system in the past year say they were satisfied with the care they received.
The data, says a February 2010 report on the Strategic Counsel survey: “continues to counter a long-standing myth that Canada’s health-care system is ‘broken’”.
Nevertheless, a strong impetus for change remains, the survey found. Forty-three per cent say major changes are required, and an equal number think minor changes should be considered. Just seven per cent say few changes are needed.
Though the survey’s main purpose was to assess public views of Health Canada, it also probed attitudes toward the health-care system.
Ontarians are most satisfied, it found, with 57 per cent rating the health-care system as good or excellent. But that could soon change; the new Ontario budget limits funding increases to hospitals to 1.5 per cent next year.
Quebecers are least content. Just one in four say the state of health care is good or excellent.
Despite growing overall satisfaction with the health-care system, most Canadians say the quality of health care hasn’t changed substantially in the past two years.
While 26 per cent think the quality has deteriorated over that period, that’s far fewer than in 2004, when about four in 10 held that view. And 18 per cent say it has improved, the highest level on record.
Women are far more likely than men to say the quality of care has deteriorated, one indication of what the report calls a “marked, and growing, gender gap” on almost all health issues.
From ensuring the safety of food and drug products to encouraging Canadians to live healthy lifestyles, women “rate all of the issues much higher in importance than men and increasingly so,” the report says.
While almost four in 10 Canadians say individuals should be allowed to pay extra to get quicker access to health care, 46 per cent disagree.
Fewer than one in 20 support user fees or an expansion of private health care within the current system.
Asked how the health-care system could be improved, most mention adding more doctors and nurses, shortening wait times or managing the system more efficiently.
But fewer than one in three have any confidence that government will be able to make any improvements in the next two years.
The survey, conducted last October, has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points, plus or minus, 19 times out of 20.
The Montreal Gazette
