Over the past two days, a major health care summit has taken place in Ottawa at the Chateau Laurier Hotel. The summit, titled "A New Health Accord for All Canadians," is a partnership between the Canada 2020 think tank and the Canadian Medical Association (CMA).

This summit featured a variety of stakeholders and speakers including Senator Chantal Peticlerc, Dr. Granger Avery, the president of the CMA, Dr. Gaétan Barrette, the Quebec Minister of Health and Social Services, and Dr. Jane Philpott, Canada's minister of health. This summit comes at a pivotal point in the history of medicare with a new health accord being negotiated in coming months and an urgent need for national pharmacare (among many pressing topics).

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Canadians are getting older, that is no secret.  While this doesn't mean we are heading to some fiscal cliff where we can't support public services, like the neoliberal think tanks would have you believe, it does mean we need to be honest with ourselves about challenges we will face in the near future. A national seniors strategy might be a place to start. 

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In a recent House of Commons committee on health, Health Canada finally acknowledged what health economists, academics and activists had been saying for some time: drug costs will rise under pending trade deals like the TPP.