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Patients, caregivers, and the public have a right to help decide how our health dollars are spent.
In 2021, the public sector paid for almost 75% of health services in Canada (about $230 billion). Deciding what the public purse should pay for can be complicated because the resources we have from the land and from our tax dollars aren’t enough to cover the health services that the public wants. Funding some health services means sacrificing others, so Canadians should know what is most important to them when it comes to health care.
In this project, a team of researchers, patient partners, and filmmakers are seeking to start a conversation about these issues through a series of short educational videos. These videos explore different ideas about health and health care costs and ask audiences to take part in imagining how Canada’s health system can be the best it can be.
As part of a collaboration with another project funded by the Health Economics and Simulation Modelling Cluster, funds have also been used to produce a 24-minute film on the value-laden processes of modelling in the social sciences and the case for greater public involvement in research.
Watch Professor Eric Winsberg share his views on COVID-19 models, including their moral significance and influence on society.
Runtime: 24:06
Below, we provide further details about two video series – Challenges in Funding Healthcare (three videos) and Values & Healthcare (four videos). The Values & Healthcare videos are part of an ongoing evaluation; summary findings from the evaluation will be available in due course.
All short educational videos created as part of this project are available here.
David Whitehurst, PI ✉︎
Nick Bansback, co-PI
Stephanie Harvard
Iskwé
Radha Lochan
Julianna Moore
Linda Li
Kim McGrail
Erin Michalak
Rick Sawatzky
Hubert Wong
And, special thanks to all those involved in the creation and execution of the materials developed in this project.
Funding the healthcare system isn’t a straightforward process. Because we don’t have unlimited funds, we can’t have everything we want. This creates a series of challenges where decisions need to be made about what gets funding, and what doesn’t.
These videos explain some of the issues that policymakers must balance.
Our values help us consider trade-offs and make decisions, whether that be in deciding where we live, what we eat, or how we spend our leisure time.
But what does this mean in the context of healthcare, and how does this relate to research that looks at ‘value for money’?
