At the beginning of the year, everyone wishes for health, this precious good that we too often forget to see as wealth when we already have it. However, health can deteriorate very slowly, without our noticing it, for various reasons. This can be because of the continuous stress of having to face the bills, eating ultra-processed foods for lack of time or even because of the lack of exercise, caught up in a job that leaves us too often in a sitting position and even, sometimes when fate strikes us personally or our family. These things, accumulated over the years, can set up the disease.
The same is true with the health of our network. His current illness is the result of decades of long deterioration following successive reforms or ill-treatment. Quick fixes, short-sighted and short-term policies fast food which have left our network in increasingly bad shape.
As a society, we must remember that the “health system costs” are in fact the “costs of illness”. Only a global and long-term vision could permanently change this downward spiral. The solution would be to invest now in prevention and in the social determinants of health, which would allow us collectively to save on treatment costs in the years to come, but above all to be collectively healthier mentally and physically. Fewer health problems, fewer hospital visits, better quality of life. It is a long-term investment whose effects will not be seen immediately, but whose positive results would become clear after several years. All of this is duly documented, among others by Public Health.
Conversely, what we are currently being offered represents a short-term vision, due to electoral reasons and the lure of profit. In four years, we must have a report to present, it does not pay politically to put in place measures whose positive effects will only be visible in ten years. So, we prefer to implement specific solutions, but whose long-term effects are more than debatable. If we take the example of the CAQ’s private mini-hospitals, this may seem like a good idea to improve access to short-term services. But what will happen in five or ten years when the economy falters? The government will cut its funding to these mini-hospitals, because the private one is more expensive, or, even worse, it will apply the same austerity policy as the Liberals. And then, you will have to pay out of pocket or have good insurance that will cost the eyes of your head to have access to it. We predicted it!
The current costs of health are the mark of a health policy ignorant of the root causes of disease. Quick and piecemeal solutions will only complicate long-term issues. Let us be clear, we are not proposing to go back to the time before the reforms, but to move forward towards a model where community action, prevention andempowerment people in relation to their health will be the keystone for a healthy society. Let’s be proud of the future we leave to our children.