Minister of Health Christian Dubé and Minister Delegate Sonia Bélanger are launching a broad consultation with the aim of implementing a national prevention strategy next spring. The explosion in health costs, linked to the increase and aging of the population, is forcing them to act, they say.
Published at 9:40 a.m.
Updated at 11:36 a.m.
The ministers made the announcement on Friday during the conference A new vision of healthheld in the metropolis and organized by the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) and the Association for Public Health of Quebec.
During his speech, Christian Dubé recalled that the health budget increased from 22 billion in 2004 to 40 billion in 2018. “This year, the budget will exceed 60 billion,” he said. In six years, that’s an increase of 50%. This is untenable. »
According to the minister, we must “work upstream” in order to curb this increase in demand for health care. “Smoking costs four billion annually […] ; obesity is almost three billion per year; alcohol consumption, three billion,” he lists.
Will Quebec invest in prevention? The public health budget amounts to one billion, or approximately 1.5% of the health budget.
In interview at The PressChristian Dubé specifies that prevention is not only a matter of public health, but also of “operations”, responsible, for example, for vaccination against shingles. It could therefore represent more than 1.5% of the budget.
But will new sums be injected? “I think there may be a movement of money,” says the minister. In prevention, I don’t think we communicate enough about the impact of not having healthy lifestyle habits. Communication is not expensive. »
According to Christian Dubé, young people must be “targeted” first. The Ministry of Education will be able to promote healthy lifestyle habits in schools. “That’s not what’s expensive,” said the Minister of Health.
Several other ministries will be involved, adds the minister responsible for seniors, Sonia Bélanger: Municipal Affairs, Transport, Revenue, Finance (for tax credits), among others.
“They all have significant impacts on people’s health,” she said, in an interview alongside her minister colleague. We cannot approach the health system only through the Ministry of Health. »
According to Sonia Bélanger and Christian Dubé, the prevention strategy could be developed on the same model as “Pride in Aging”, a “costed interministerial and intersectoral plan” which extends over five years. There are 102 measurements, specifies Sonia Bélanger. There are indicators for each of them. » The minister must report to the council of ministers every year.
For Christian Dubé, this strategy is an example of what the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) will do during the official creation of Santé Québec on 1is December. Remember that the agency will be responsible for operations in the public network and the MSSS for orientations.
