The Senior Times Online

Quebecers' priorities are public health care & homecare, not super-hospitals, says coalition of physicians Quebecers' top priorities for new health spending are publicly-funded health care, home-care and long-term care institutions for elderly and sick people — but they don't think new Montreal super-hospitals are important, according to a new opinion survey.

The poll was conducted by the Coalition of Physicians for Social Justice between Sept. 20 to Oct. 3. Quebecers were found to support enlarging the scope of the Quebec government's medication insurance and would like to improve funding for services to the mentally ill outside Montreal.

Asked if the federal and Quebec governments should increase health spending to ensure free health care for everyone in a public system, 91 per cent agreed, 68 per cent said it was very important and 23 per cent said it was somewhat important.

This result seems to give solid support to a strong publicly-funded health care system in Quebec, rather than a mixture of public and private health care.

Highlights of the poll

Home Care: 93 per cent said it was "very important" or "somewhat important" to expand home care, in order to allow elderly and sick people to stay in their homes while getting health care and to reduce emergency room crowding."

Long-term Care for the Elderly and Sick People: 94 per cent felt it was "very important" or "somewhat important" to increase "long- term care, that is nursing homes and long-stay hospitals for elderly family members who cannot live at home any more."

Quebec's Medication Insurance System: 68 per cent felt it was "very important" or "somewhat important" to "invest more money into the government's drug insurance plan, so that everyone would get prescription medications free at the pharmacy."

Super-Hospitals: Sixty per cent of Quebecers and 59 per cent of Montrealers felt the super-hospitals projects were "not very important" or "not at all important."

The survey questions were posed to 959 Quebec residents by phone by the CROP polling company. The polling method accurately reflects the opinions of Quebecers, within per cent, 19 times out of 20.

For a detailed display of the data for each question, go to www.coalitiondoc.org.