Justice and Equity in Canadian Health Policy Reform

Health care services have the potential to impact the lives of citizens. The institutions that distribute them are therefore open to evaluation from the perspective of justice. Health care reform discussions in Canada, however, typically occur without sufficient attention to issues of justice and equity. This paper describes the link between health and justice, with a focus on how greater equity in society, as well as at the point of health care delivery, is necessary to fulfill the moral function of health care, i.e., to protect fair equality of opportunity. This is best accomplished by adopting a more explicit equity-oriented approach to health policy analysis. The core insight of such an approach is to focus our health care reform efforts on enhancing the health of the least well-off in society, and reducing social inequalities in general.