| International trade agreements have altered the context within which Canada's health care system must function. This thesis critically examines the implications of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for the future of Canada's health care system. The GATS and NAFTA seek to liberalize trade in services and investment, a goal that is largely premised on the value of the free market. The free market{09}is a form of resource allocation based on purchasing power and rests uneasily with the values of Canada's health care system which seeks to distribute health care resources according to need, not ability to pay. Through their trade liberalizing provisions, the GATS and NAFTA have the potential to promote the presence of a foreign private, for-profit sector in Canada's health care system and to undermine the core values on which the health care system is founded. |
