Better now: six big ideas to improve the health of all Canadians

Longlisted for British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction 2018

Dr. Danielle Martin sees the challenges in our health care system every day. As a family doctor and a hospital vice president, she observes how those deficiencies adversely affect patients. And as a health policy expert, she knows how to close those gaps. A passionate believer in the value of fairness that underpins the Canadian health care system, Dr. Martin is on a mission to improve medicare. In Better Now, she shows how bold fixes are both achievable and affordable. Her patients&; stories and her own family&;s experiences illustrate the evidence she presents about what works best to improve health care for all.

Better Now outlines &;Six Big Ideas&; to bolster Canada&;s health care system. Each one is centred on a typical Canadian patient, making it clear how close to home these issues strike.

· Ensure every Canadian has regular access to a family doctor or other primary care provider
· Bring prescription drugs under medicare
· Reduce unnecessary tests and interventions
· Reorganize health care delivery to reduce wait times and improve quality
· Implement a basic income guarantee to alleviate poverty, which is a major threat to health
· Scale up successful local innovations to a national level

Passionate, accessible, and authoritative, Dr. Martin is a fervent supporter of the best of medicare and a persuasive critic of what needs fixing.