Health care
CONSERVATIVE PARTY
• Increase health care funding to the provinces and territories.
• Fund further research into how palliative care is best provided to Canadians.
• Renew the Canada Brain Research Fund when it expires in 2017, with another $100 million over seven years.
• Renew the mandate and funding of the Canadian Partnership against Cancer again in 2017.
• Help establish the Canadian Cancer Society’s Cancer Prevention Centre, in conjunction with other levels of government and donors.
• Match contributions to the Terry Fox Foundation up to $35 million.
GREEN PARTY
• Expand health care to cover prescription medication for all Canadians and public dental coverage for low-income youth (under 18 years of age), and increase the emphasis on preventative health care.
• Implement a National Pharmacare Plan that, through the advantage of bulk buying, will save Canadians $11 billion each year.
• Establish a national seniors strategy, and increase investment in preventative health care.
• Develop a national strategy on Lyme disesase.
• Work with the provinces to develop preventative health-care guidelines that incentivize active lifestyles and healthy diets.
• Adopt stricter regulations to prohibit cancer-causing chemicals in our food and consumer products.
LIBERAL PARTY
• Negotiate a new Health Accord with provinces and territories, including a long-term agreement on funding.
• Invest $3 billion over the next four years to deliver more and better home care services, including more access to in-home caregivers, financial supports for family care and palliative care.
• Make the Employment Insurance Compassionate Care Benefit more flexible and easier to access, so that it provides help for more than just end-of-life care.
• Join with provincial and territorial governments to buy drugs in bulk, reducing the cost Canadian governments pay for these drugs, and making them more affordable for Canadians.
• Consult with provinces, territories, and other stakeholders to introduce a National Disabilities Act.
• Introduce restrictions on the marketing of unhealthy food and beverages to children.
• Bring in tougher regulations to eliminate trans fats and to reduce salt in processed foods.
• Increase funding to the Public Health Agency of Canada by $15 million in each of the next two years, to support a national strategy to increase vaccination rates.
NDP
• Reverse cuts to the Canada Health Transfer and ensure the transfer increases by at least six per cent a year.
• Work with the provinces and territories to develop universal public drug coverage.
• Dedicate funding over four years to improving provincial-federal capacity for drug reviews, listing and joint pricing negotiations, and strengthen safety by addressing inappropriate prescribing.
• Provide funding to improve urban Indigenous health outcomes.
• Expand the National Diabetes Strategy to improve diabetes prevention, early screening and better chronic disease management in at-risk communities.
• Invest in programs designed to decrease tobacco use, implement plain packaging of tobacco products and ban junk food and beverage advertising targeted at children.
• Create a Mental Health Innovation Fund for Children and Youth to reduce wait times and improve access to care.
Seniors
CONSERVATIVE PARTY
• Reduce minimum withdrawal requirements for Registered Retirement Income Funds.
• Establish an “equivalent to spouse” pension income credit for single and widowed seniors — a $2,000 tax credit for single seniors.
• Provide more resources to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, with an aim of targeting online fraud targeting seniors.
GREEN PARTY
• Support expansion of CPP as the most reliable and predictable pension plan.
• End mandatory retirement and provide for flexible retirement benefits for those seniors who want to continue working.
• Enhance CPP by phasing in the doubling of the target income replacement rate from 25 per cent to 50 per cent of income received during working years.
• Guarantee the right to draw up a ‘living will’ that gives the power to limit or refuse medical intervention and treatment so the person has the choice of dying with dignity.
• Develop, in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments, a set of national home care objectives in a National Home Care Policy.
LIBERAL PARTY
• Work with the provinces and territories, workers, employers and retiree organizations to enhance the Canada Pension Plan.
• Maintain pension income splitting for seniors.
• Restore the eligibility age for Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement to 65.
• Increase the Guaranteed Income Supplement for single low-income seniors by 10 per cent, giving one million seniors almost $1,000 more each year.
• Introduce a new Seniors Price Index to make sure that Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement benefits keep up with rising costs.
NDP
• Support improved seniors’ care by expanding home care to over 41,000 more seniors and helping provinces build 5,000 more nursing home beds.
• Expand compassionate care leave for families through the Employment Insurance program.
• Develop and fund a National Alzheimer’s and Dementia Strategy.
• Improve access to palliative and end-of-life care, resources and support.
• Provide greater support for caregivers by expanding eligibility for the Compassionate Care Benefit.
• Roll back the expansion of income splitting, while protecting seniors’ ability to split their pension income.
• Reverse the decision to raise the age of retirement from 65 to 67.
• Increase the Guaranteed Income Supplement.
Sources: Items were found in the parties’ platforms
