Open for signatureElectronice-7691 · Parliament 45

Strengthen Canada Health Act

Sign on the House of Commons website

Petitioners ask the Government to enforce and modernize the Canada Health Act with clearer access standards, prohibit patient fees or preferential private access, tie federal transfers to public capacity, and strengthen enforcement and transparency.

Why we would sign this petition

  • Protects universal access by prohibiting patient charges and preferential private access, keeping medically necessary care available based on need rather than ability to pay.
  • Establishing clearer national access standards and enforcement could reduce inequities and limit diversion of resources toward private-pay services.
  • Tying federal transfers to public capacity and requiring transparency would help ensure federal funds sustain adequate public health services.

Why we wouldn’t sign this petition

  • May constrain provincial flexibility in organizing and funding health services, raising jurisdictional or implementation concerns.
  • Prohibiting certain private payment options could reduce alternative care pathways or slow adoption of new delivery models preferred by some patients or providers.
  • Strengthening enforcement, monitoring and conditional transfers may be costly and politically difficult to implement consistently across provinces.

The summary and both sets of reasons are AI-generated from the petition and given equal weight. Claims are the petitioners’ own; consult the official record for the full text.

Official petition

Petition to the Government of Canada The Canada Health Act establishes public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability and accessibility as national criteria for publicly funded health care; Universal access to medically necessary health care based on need, rather than ability to pay, is fundamental to Canada’s health care system; Evidence from systematic reviews has associated increased privatization and for-profit delivery of health care with poorer patient outcomes, reduced staffing, increased costs and inequities in access, while evidence that privatization improves quality of care remains limited; The erosion of universal health care may occur through extra-billing and user charges, but also through the removal of medically necessary services from public coverage, inadequate public capacity, preferential access for those able to pay, or the diversion of health care resources toward private-pay delivery; Changes in health care delivery must not permit the principles of the Canada Health Act to be circumvented; We, the undersigned, People of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to 1. Vigorously enforce the Canada Health Act and its principles of public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability and accessibility; 1. Vigorously enforce the Canada Health Act and its principles of public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability and accessibility; 2. Introduce legislation to strengthen and modernize the Act, including clearer national standards for reasonable access to medically necessary care; 3. Prevent circumvention of the Act through patient charges, membership or preferential-access fees, removal of medically necessary services from universal coverage, or other financial or structural barriers; 4. Strengthen conditions attached to federal health transfers to protect adequate public health care capacity and prevent the creation of two-tier access based on ability to pay; and 5. Establish stronger transparency, compliance and enforcement mechanisms to ensure federal health funding supports accessible, universal health care.

Government response

No government response is available yet.