I agree in principle except that, as Harper well knew, it would be extremely difficult politically for the provinces to add 2% to PST given that the provinces hadn't lost that 2% income from GST, it had come off federal revenues and was a major contributor to Harper's average of $16 to $17 billion a year deficits! Until this year, the provinces had been receiving 6% per annum INCREASES to health transfers from Ottawa for something like 12 years - I'll let you figure out the compounding! Conservatives claim that Harper increased transfers every year that he was in power because he was such a nice guy so the provinces should be awash in funds, shouldn't they?

Of course, maybe the country is facing a demographic challenge of an aging population. In either case, hard ball positions from either the federal or provincial sides will not help and it will take a long time to negotiate a sensible approach and new approaches to health care, hopefully the provinces are ready to talk.