Expect court challenges on changes to health services, researcher says.REGINA -- Governments can under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms if they delist more services or significantly alter the mix between private and public sector delivery of health care services, warns Donna Greschner in her discussion paper, How will the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Evolving Jurisprudence jurisprudence (j  r'ĭspr d`əns), study of the nature and the origin and development of law. Affect Health Care Costs? Examining successful and unsuccessful Court challenges of the current health care system by Canadians, Greschner notes that since 1982 there have been relatively few challenges under the Charter. Of those challenges, only 11 actions succeeded with little impact on health care costs. For the most part only three sections o f t he Charter, Sections 15, 7 and 6, have been used as grounds for court action. These sections guarantee the rights of equal benefit of the law without discrimination, protect the right not tO be deprived of the person and guarantee the right to live and earn a living in any province. Charter rights are also influenced by international law, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966, and in force from January 3, 1976. , to which Canada is a signatory sig·na·to·ry adj. Bound by signed agreement: the signatory parties to a contract. n. pl. sig·na·to·ries One that has signed a treaty or other document. . This Covenant expressly includes the right to health, while other international laws also articulate the right to access to health care services. Greschner remarks in her paper presented to the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada Canada's health care system is a publicly funded health care system, with most services provided by private entities. While the Canadian government calls it a "public system,[1][2], it is not "socialized medicine". that governments must take positive steps to ensure their citizenry cit·i·zen·ry n. pl. cit·i·zen·ries Citizens considered as a group. citizenry Noun citizens collectively Noun 1. enjoy those rights, and "they cannot avoid their obligations to promote access to health care services by privatizing health care". Although Charter challenges to the health care system are inevitable, and the number of challenges depends on the type of changes made to the health care system, Greschner asserts that governments may avoid costly outcomes of such challenges by adhering to the principles already embedded in the Canada Health Act The Canada Health Act is a piece of Canadian federal legislation, adopted in 1984, that lists the conditions and criteria to which the provinces and territories must conform in order to receive the full amount of negotiated transfer payments relating to health care. . These principles of universality, accessibility and comprehensiveness reflect the Charter's values of equality and human dignity Human dignity is an expression that can be used as a moral concept or as a legal term. Sometimes it means no more than that human beings should not be treated as objects. Beyond this, it is meant to convey an idea of absolute and inherent worth that does not need to be acquired and , and would likely help reduce the risk of judicial disruption to government health care policies. |
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