Quebec to levy health fee, raise sales tax

Story: Quebecers will be paying a new "health contribution" and 9.5% in provincial sales tax by 2012 under the budget Finance Minister Raymond Bachand brought down yesterday, as the province struggles to contain a projected $4.5-billion deficit. The new health contribution measure kicks in on July 1, and will see citizens pay $25 this year when filing their income taxes, rising to $100 next year and $200 in 2012, generating revenues of $945-million annually when fully implemented in an effort to help pay for Quebec's rising health-care costs, which account for 45% of program spending.

McGill experts:

Prof. Antonia Maioni, Director McGill Institute for the Study of Canada

Expertise: Health-care reform

Prof. Erin Strumpf, Department of Economics, Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health

Expertise: health economist and health services researcher whose research interests include how characteristics of health care and health financing systems affect access to health care, quality of care, health care costs and health outcomes, particularly for vulnerable subpopulations.

Prof. Wendy Thomson, Director School of Social Work

Expertise: Health care inequality and outcomes

Source: National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2747507#ixzz0jlIX1ebd