Lalondes a New Perspective on the Health of Canadians - Essay Example

"Lalonde’s a New Perspective on the Health of Canadians" is a wonderful example of a paper on the health system. Lalonde introduced a Green Paper in 1974, A New Perspective on the Health of Canadians, which was aimed to challenge the traditional paradigm for Canadian health care reform which focuses on more sophisticated technological resources, additional medical facilities, and healthcare providers as a way to improve the health care system (n.a., 2010). Lalonde’s proposal, in contrast, puts emphasis on holistic health care, which involves concern for lifestyle, human biology, and environment as a means to guarantee the effective and efficient functioning of the health care system (n.a., 2010).

Basically, Lalonde challenged the ‘Beveridge model’, which is characterised by a health care system that is financially supported by the government through taxation (Sowada, 2003), and promoted the ‘environmental model of health’, which takes into account the impacts in individual health of various environmental factors, education, and socioeconomic status (Sowada, 2003).  This political action was fundamentally a technical one, revolving around the issues of health care needs and equality. Absent in a more essential manner was any continued substantive examination of the objectives and purposes of health care. It was as though everybody in Canada had accepted the traditional paradigm of health care reform, and hence there was nothing to challenge; or that the issue was shunned in general to avoid even greater disagreement. However, the trend demonstrated in the Canadian health care disagreement, as illustrated in Lalonde’s project, was widespread across the globe: fundamental matters of principles and goals tend to be overwhelmed with the technical issues relevant to the organising and funding of health care institutions.

The Political Philosophy of Lalonde

            The political philosophy of Lalonde’s proposal is ‘modern liberalism’ because it argued for the freedom of the people to choose their own lifestyle and to access health care services, yet, with a certain extent of government intervention. It was geared toward the discrepancy between the technical (funding) and substantive (e.g. lifestyle, human biology, environment, etc.)  issues that required balancing, and the objective of the 1974 Green Paper was to accomplish precisely that. The political philosophy is to resolve the most essential issues about health care and its objectives.

 In Canada, what is presently referred to as a ‘system’ is definitely not in the form of an ecological unit, which is characterised by sustainability, manageability, with a holistic feedback mechanism, with accurate and definite resources and handling of resources, and with identified inputs and outputs. Therefore, the major political philosophy of Lalonde is a fair and balanced reaction to every issue. A health care system needs clear flexibility.   

The Desired Outcome of Lalonde

            There are two basic desired outcomes of the action: (1) reinforce the fundamental environmental health programmes which are intended to inform citizens of pre-emptive methods which involve regulation of soil, water, and air pollution; and (2) develop an effective implementation of current policies regarding health and wellness, and ideas of environmental regulation. People should be in charge of their own lifestyle and the physical, emotional, and psychological condition which stems from that lifestyle—this should not be dependent on the government. Nevertheless, the government should create initiatives through current policies to regulate those factors over which people cannot control.

The actual, immediate outcome of Lalonde’s proposal is the development of wide-ranging health promotion programmes that placed primary importance on healthy lifestyle decisions. These programmes were facilitated by the new directorate and major NGOs, like the Non-Smokers’ Rights Association and the Heart and Stroke Foundation.  

Conclusion

            The political action puts emphasis on health promotion, which is required by the holistic model of environmental protection and health. If there is a weakness, it could be financing. Most of the environmental protection and health officers are working in public organisations, which may or may not observe further financing for implementation.       

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