Daphne Bramham op-ed: Healthy communities require more than medical care
Daphne Bramham featured Get Well Canada in a recent Vancouver Sun op-ed, highlighting Dr. Paul Kershaw's analysis of provincial medical and social spending. In the 1970s, provincial governments consistently spent more on social services and education than they did on medical care. Now the opposite is true.
"For better and worse, medicare is a Canadian shibboleth," Bramham writes. "It’s made politicians leery of slowing the money flow even as many have been loath to raise taxes. It’s why for decades they have beggared other programs key to healthy communities to the point that many are now becoming destabilized. Younger Canadians (including doctors) are already staggering under the weight of unaffordable housing alone. Now, it’s been made worse by inflation, which, in addition to driving up the price of everything, has resulted in many companies making staff cuts. The best-educated and trained are fleeing to places where they can live more comfortably — places where wages and costs are more closely aligned."