Health care is Canada's best-loved social program - and for good reason. For more than 30 years, Canadians have enjoyed high quality care based on need and not on ability to pay. But it is a complex system: changes proposed for the system and those already underway can be difficult to understand and evaluate. What do public and private mean as they apply to our current health care system and in proposed reforms? As the boomer generation ages, will the growing number of seniors bankrupt medicare? What do we mean by wait times and are they increasing? Who pays for drugs and how can we ensure Canadians have equitable access to necessary drugs? Can technologies significantly improve care and reduce costs? This book explains how the Canadian system works and assesses the reforms underway.