Tax cuts created health-care crisis

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/09/2023 (710 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In 1999, the Progressive Conservative government of Premier Gary Filmon lost the provincial election after promoting the idea that tax cuts were the magic that cured all ills, while the victorious NDP pointed to the halls of Manitoba’s hospitals (“hallway medicine”) filled with patients with no place to go.

Conservatives continue to promote the idea that cutting taxes is the ideal way to promote economic growth, income for all and improving the state of government revenue and balanced books. It’s what informed critics refer to as Voodoo economics.

We know that tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest members of society correlate with inequality and deficits, not economic growth.

Like their Republican counterparts in the United States, the current Manitoba PCs are another example of conservatives with the belief in what history has proved to be a one-legged stool: cutting taxes, balancing budgets, and maintaining necessary public services never works.

At the end of the day, conservatives don’t achieve either the second or third leg because their only real priority is that governments must be shrunk and the wealth of their constituents however unequally distributed are left in their individual hands.

As reported in the Free Press, the Progressive Conservatives have devoted more than $1.3 billion to annual tax cuts including to some of the richest billionaires on earth while the provincial debt remains stubbornly high. The widely advertised PC tax cuts that were to compensate voters for the ongoing public debt and health care shortages handed those with highest incomes the largest tax breaks, and the poorest with $74 a year.

Manitoba was consistently in the top four provinces for provincial spending on health care during the NDP’s time in office — in the five PC years prior to the pandemic, it was consistently one of the lowest-spending provinces.

The results are endless reports of doctor and nurse shortages, longer diagnostic and surgical wait times due to underfunding, an incompetent reorganization of the health care system complemented by confused, uninformed and callous responses to the cause of this crisis by the premier — as health minister and as premier.

Manitoba had the second highest death rate from the pandemic in the country with a tragically high death rate in personal care homes due to staffing cuts and shortages — after which we discovered that physical and sexual mistreatment was ignored by the government.

Headlines in the United States read, “Widening gap in death rates between Democrat and Republican Counties in the U.S.” The gap increased by more than sixfold between 2001 and 2019.

People residing in U.S. counties with the highest poverty and the highest political lean toward Republicans were nearly six times more likely to die from COVID-19, compared to those residing in the counties jointly with the lowest poverty and the highest political lean toward Democrat.

Harvard School of Public Health professor Nancy Krieger and co-authors concluded that political lean is a crucial variable that should be used routinely to monitor county-level trends in COVID-19 cases and mortality, alongside and in conjunction with sociodemographic and socioeconomic data.

The source of these differences is that Democrats in the United States prioritize government-driven efforts to improve health outcomes. Republican prioritize limiting the role of government and decreasing government spending.

It is policy choices that have a larger role than individual behavior in causing poor health.

As health outcomes such as life expectancy have diverged in recent years, state policies have been becoming more polarized. Liberal states enacted more policies to address health concerns, while conservative states went in the opposite direction.

Conservatives tend to see health as a matter of individual responsibility and to prefer less government intervention. Liberals often promote the role of government to implement regulations to protect health.

In addition to expanding health care access, Democrats also spend more on what are known as the social determinants of health; providing housing, access to healthy food and mental health supports to mitigate exposure to toxic stress often the result of socioeconomic status.

How to pay for improved health in Manitoba? As reported in the Free Press between 2016 and 2023, federal transfer payments to Manitoba have jumped 71 per cent, to $5.88 billion from $3.5 billion, and have been used to cut taxes.

Alternatively, these equalization payments can be used for their intended purpose, to rebuild our health care system, instead of contributing to more inequality in the province.

If Manitobans want to live an American Republican health nightmare, they should vote for more tax cuts.

Robert Chernomas teaches economics at the University of Manitoba.