Health and health care are big topics. We’ll be providing information here to help explain how it all works.

In Canada, each provincial government is responsible for delivering health care.  In 2006/07, the Province is spending $12.8 billion in health expenditures in British Columbia. 

The Canada Health Act is Canada’s federal legislation for publicly funded health care insurance.  It outlines the rules on what provinces and territories must do to receive federal funding.  The Canada Health Act sets out principles in the areas of: public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability, and accessibility.

In British Columbia, our provincial government sets overall health policy, while five health authorities have been given responsibility for actually managing health services, each for a different area of the province. A sixth health authority is responsible for province-wide services such as cancer treatment and the BC Children’s Hospital.

Health authorities operate hospitals, clinics and other health care facilities, and also provide health services in the community. In addition, doctors, nurses and other health workers are located in virtually every community in BC.

It’s a big and complicated system. To learn more about health and British Columbia’s health system, visit this part of the Conversation on Health web site regularly. We’ll be adding new information often.

To read more about some of the people and organizations involved with our health system visit Who’s Responsible for What?  

To find information regarding Your BC Health Guide go here.