Federal Government’s Changing Role in Canada’s Health Care Funding Structure and its Impacts

Abstract

This article discusses Canada’s public healthcare system, one of the social programs most valued by Canadian citizens today. More specifically, it looks at the funding structure of said healthcare system, which is split between the federal and provincial governments, and how that relationship and the issue of healthcare funding more broadly remains one of the most contentious on the Canadian political scene. This article argues that the declining financial contributions of the federal government, observed since the 1970s, has negatively impacted the universality of Canadian health care coverage and the equality in access and quality of care across the country.