Canadian Stakeholders' Views about the Boundaries of Publicly Funded Health Care: What are the Consequences for Women Caregivers?

The debate about the sustainability of Canada's health care model has focussed on updating what services should be publicly funded. Full public coverage is only guaranteed for services delivered in hospitals or by physicians. Many reports have recommended expanding public coverage to include community-based services. A national survey of 2,523 policy elites demonstrated that implementation of this policy direction will be difficult. The inability to implement policy that supports publicly financing community-based services could result in a shift of the delivery of care from the formal sector to the informal sector. Moreover, a shift of this nature will undoubtedly result in a higher reliance on the unpaid work of women caregivers. Consequently, there is a need to explore the impact that economic and social restructuring has on the well-being of women caregivers within both the formal and informal sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]