Canada’s universal healthcare system remains a major social and economic asset. But years of tightly controlling costs have also left it with too few beds, too little resilience, burned-out health professionals and patients rationed through wait times. We may have made health care financially sustainable, but is it still sustainable from the perspective of the people who depend on it?
Sage contributors Peter Nicholson and Peter Wallace join host Allan Gregg to debate why reform has proved so difficult and what should come next. Can expanding the responsibilities of nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals improve access? Would private investment provide a much-needed safety valve—or merely siphon workers and easier cases out of the public system? And can AI and Canada’s vast stores of health data finally help spread better practices across hospitals and provinces?
