Canadian Health Care System

The idea of what the Canadian Health Care system should be varies between the country's three political parties. According to the official website of the New Democratic Party of Canada, the NDP believes that every Canadian citizen should have quality, reliable health care. In fact, the NDP initially created Canada's public health care system. In addition to the current health care system, the NDP is trying to create legislation that would grant free dental and drug coverage for seniors over the age of 65. Lastly, recent debate in both Canada and the United States has been on the subject of whether or not health care should be privatized. It is the belief of the NDP that the privatization of health care would have a negative effect in Canada. Therefore, the NDP has campaigned vigorously against this idea. Another set of beliefs that are heard in Canada come from the Canadian Liberal Party. The Canadian Liberal Party believes that while some privatization is OK, the government must ensure that it remains under control. Also, like Canada's other two parties, the Canadian Liberal Party retains that health care must be affordable to all its citizens. The third and final of Canada's political parties is the Canadian Conservative Party. Although this party is called the "Conservative Party," conservative in Canada has a much more liberal bias than what we are accustomed to in the United States of America. For example, the Canadian Conservative Party is committed to providing quality health care regardless of the individual's ability to pay. Also, the Canadian Conservative Party is fighting to implement two important health care policies into Canadian legislature. These two health care policies are the "Patient Wait Times Guarantee" and the "Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control." The "Patient Wait Times Guarantee" would decrease the amount of wait time for priority procedures. This has been a hot topic in Canada due to increasing hospital waiting lists.