Provinces should embrace generous health-care transfers

In any world other than the political domain, the promise of six per cent increases annually for the next five years would be greeted with high-fives and grins all over.

That’s what Finance Minister Jim Flaherty promised the provinces recently when he outlined plans for health-care transfers, adding that after 2017, increases will be tied to economic growth, including inflation — or roughly four per cent. And perhaps to prevent provincial politicians from reaching for the aspirin, Flaherty pledged that annual increases after 2017 will never be less than three per cent, even if economic growth dips below that level.
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