Health care is a top election issue for Canadian voters, but party leaders are failing to adequately address it on the campaign trail, according to a new public opinion poll by EKOS.
EKOS Politics conducted the poll in collaboration with several universities and health groups, with assistance from Amir Attaran, a professor in the faculties of law and medicine at the University of Ottawa.
The poll asked 2,011 respondents to play prime minister for a day and prioritize their spending on a variety of different issues, including disease prevention, child care, tax cuts and spending on the military. EKOS found five of respondents' top eight priorities were health care-related, including the top priority -- investing in improving public health.
Improving end-of-life care, investing in disease prevention, improving access to mental health services and introducing a new universal home care program were also seen as priorities.
"Clearly, Canadians' expectations of health in this election are going unaddressed," Attaran said in an email statement.
The poll also found respondents were largely opposed to Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's approach to health care.
When asked if the state of public health care has improved, worsened or stayed the same since Harper came to power in 2006, most respondents answered negatively. Overall, 55 per cent said health care has worsened under Harper, while 25 per cent said it has stayed the same and 17 per cent said it has improved. The majority of respondents also opposed Harper's changes to the health-care system.
Additionally, most poll respondents opposed a two-tier health-care system, with 64 per cent saying they disagreed with the suggestion that individuals should be allowed to pay extra to get quicker access to health care services.
When asked which level of government should protect, promote and improve Canadians' health, 64 per cent of respondents said that responsibility should fall on the federal government. However, 48 per cent of respondents said they had more confidence in their provincial government on the issue, while 34 per cent said they had more confidence in the federal government.
In terms of which federal party respondents trusted most to handle health-care issues, the NDP scored the highest, followed by the Liberals, then the Conservatives. Participants were asked a series of questions about which party they trusted to address a number of different health care-related concerns.
The EKOS poll was conducted using a hybrid online/telephone research panel, with participants recruited by telephone, using random digit dialing and confirmed by live interviewers. The survey was conducted between Sept. 14-22, with 2,011 Canadian adults aged 18 or older. The margin of error is +/- 3.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
EKOS Poll - Canadians Worried Sick About Health Care
