Publications Issued By The Public Health Service

"The Nation has lost sight of its public health goals and has allowed the system of public health to fall into 'disarray'," from The Future of Public Health. This startling book contains proposals for ensuring that public health service programs are efficient and effective enough to deal not only with the topics of today, but also with those of tomorrow. In addition, the authors make recommendations for core functions in public health assessment, policy development, and service assurances, and identify the level of government--federal, state, and local--at which these functions would best be handled.

Developed within the context of the expansion of the Canadian welfare state in the years following the Great Depression, the present organization of Canadian health care delivery is now in serious need of reform. This book documents the causes and effects of changes made in this century to Canada's health care policy. Particular emphasis is placed on the decades following 1940, the years in which Canada moved away from an individualistic entrepreneurial medical care system, first toward a collectivist biomedical model and then to a social model for health care.

In April 2001, the Prime Minister established the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada. Its mandate was to review medicare, engage Canadians in a national dialogue on its future, and make recommendations to enhance the system's quality and sustainability. The 47 recommendations in this report outline actions that must be taken in 10 critical areas, starting by renewing the foundations of medicare and considering Canada's role in improving health around the world.