Opinion: The importance of universal medicare

at this time is really our ability to invest sufficient resources in this area. Unlike fields like communications, banking or the retail sector, the digital transformation of agriculture has been lagging behind. We need more research in Smart Agriculture and more collaboration between academia, government and the private sector to leverage from the strengths and expertise that each party will bring to the table.

The biggest value of Artificial Intelligence to agriculture is the analysis of real time data to make predictions and assist farmers in their day to day operations. But the large amount of data on weather, temperature, moisture, the presence of insects and other pests collected via remote sensors requires huge computational analytical capabilities available mostly through remote servers and Cloud computing. It is therefore critical for farming communities to have access to the best possible digital network to handle quickly this continuous flow of data. So, in addition to investing to develop Smart Agriculture applications, we must also invest to improve our rural connectivity. Data is of great value only if it can be analyzed quickly and used to decide on the best immediate course of action.

Connecting rural and remote communities has been a core competency of Huawei, from its roots in China through the development of wireless networks on the African continent over the past 2 decades to connecting remote communities in the Canadian great North for the past 10 years. Combined with its world leading research, technology and solutions, a company like Huawei Canada can assist us to ensure that all the smart agriculture applications developed in Canada will actually be applied in Canada. If we can accelerate the implementation of Smart Agriculture in Canada, we will produce more food with less impact on our environment – and in the end, everybody wins! n

Vincent Guyonnet is the Managing Director of FFI Consulting, a firm dedicated to maximizing the role of animal source foods to human nutrition and food security, including the use of new digital technologies.

COVID-19 crisis lays bare the importance of universal medicare

While governments, health care workers and the Canadian public are uniting to take on the COVID-19 pandemic, some critics have seen this as an opportunity to capitalize on public fear and promote a profit-driven health care system over Canadian medicare.

Would Canada, as some claim, really have been better prepared for a pandemic in a health system where care would be delivered to those who can afford to pay for it, rather than based on need?

Let’s look at the evidence.

No country could have been fully prepared for a crisis of this scale – indeed, no country has been. No country in the world has an “on demand” health care system with limitless capacity. That would mean building empty “rainy day” hospital beds and stockpiling unused ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPE) for decades, in the event they would be needed some day.

But Canada’s single-payer health system has allowed us to impressively ramp up our “surge capacity” to expand in a time of crisis – while still ensuring universal access. In a matter of just weeks, Canadian hospitals have increased staffing for critically ill patients, reduced inpatient loads by 30-40 per cent to make room for a surge of COVID-19 admissions, and bolstered our supply of PPE and ventilators.

These measures were taken so that every patient who requires hospital care for COVID-19, or for any other medical emergency, can continue to access the highest quality of care possible, no matter who they are or what they earn.

Our health care system is not traded on the stock exchange.

Fans of the American health system praise it for having lower average hospital occupancies of 64 per cent, leaving lots of room for surge capacity in a crisis. But what they fail to recognize is that these half-empty hospitals are a result of the most expensive profitdriven health care system in the world, in which hospitals are all competing to attract “customers,” over-selling tests and treatments just to keep themselves in business.

uninsured Americans with no access to care, or the millions of under-insured Americans who risk financial ruin if they seek care or choosing between paying crippling hospital bills or having a roof over their heads.

This is even more concerning in a viral pandemic where those with no access to medical care can put the rest of the community at risk.

Health care profiteers persistently and intentionally conflate health care “delivery” with health care “financing.” Canada does not outlaw private forprofit delivery of health care. There is no monopoly on health care delivery.

What Canada does not allow is private payment – whether out-of-pocket or through private insurance -- for care already covered by our provincial plans. Physicians can’t bill the government for publicly insured medical services and charge patients extra money on top of that.

Having just one payer in each province means we don’t waste money on paying COVID-19 should not be exploited to make the case for a private pay health care system. In fact, the reverse should ring true. Now is a good time to think about expanding our universal health system.

As hundreds of thousands of Canadians face job loss as a result of this crisis, it highlights the need for more publicly funded health care to keep our citizens safe and healthy. Many Canadians will face financial struggles through this crisis and may also lose their job-linked extended health benefits.

They will not lose their access to physician and hospital care, but a loss of work-related health benefits will have a huge impact on their ability to access prescription medications and dental care.

Of course, our health system is not perfectly prepared for a pandemic.

When this COVID-19 crisis ends, we will have an opportunity to reflect on the challenges our health care system faced and take steps to adapt for the future. Creative solutions that have come out of this pandemic, such as the widespread use of telemedicine and novel triage systems, might be continued to improve access to care.

But one thing that should not change is our commitment to equitable access to health care for everyone in Canada.

This is no time for greedy profiteers to be distracting us from saving lives. As front-line health care workers, we will continue to show up every day, throughout this pandemic and beyond, to protect our human right to health care. We are counting on everyone to do the same n

Dr. Thara Kumar is an Emergency Room physician based in Red Deer, Alberta. Dr. Melanie Bechard is a fellow in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Both are members of the Board of Directors at Canadian Doctors for Medicare.