Correcting the narrative

Danyaal Raza, MD
Broadbent Institute Progress Summit
March 5 2026

Canadians often talk about universal health care as a defining feature of our nation – something that fundamentally differentiates us from our neighbours south of the border. Across Canada, however, the foundations of universal health care have eroded under a combination of underfunding, privatization, and policy choices by some provincial administrations. The Carney government’s new “nation building” initiatives do not currently include plans to repair the foundations of Canadian Medicare or invest in its expansion. This fireside chat makes the case that it should. Danyaal Raza discusses how investment in public health care is in the national interest, what role the federal government can play in the protection and expansion of our healthcare system, and how we can organize together to get health care on the national agenda.

Highlights from Danyaal Raza’s remarks at the Broadbent Institute’s March 2026 Progress Summit:

There’s this narrative that we hear all the time from some pundits and some politicians that healthcare spending is out of control in Canada and we just can’t afford any new investments in Medicare. Every single dollar that is spent on healthcare in Canada 70 cents or 70% comes from public sources and 30% comes privately. Countries like Germany, France, the Netherlands, the UK and the Nordics, they all spend 80% or more of every single healthcare dollar on their public healthcare system.

We are the only country with a universal healthcare system that does not include a universal drug plan. And not only that, but in the past five years, it is private healthcare spending that has grown faster that public healthcare spending. Private healthcare spending is what’s driving overall rising costs. While most cost effective, the most efficient and frankly the morally right choice is to double down and invest in single payer health care.