Disparities in Healthcare Access and Use: Yackety-yack, Yackety-yack

ESPITE CHANGE, UNCERTAINTY AND DISARRAY IN CANADA'S HEALTHCARE system(s), some observations about Canadian medicare still seem beyond challenge:• access to healthcare based solely on need is the core value that gave rise to and sustains medicare; • the advent, through medicare, of universal, publicly funded physician and hospital services substantially reduced disparities in access to, and outcomes of, healthcare based on socio-economic status (Enterline et al. 1973; James et al. 2007); • despite those gains, disparities remain -factors other than need continue to influence access to and use of services.