The impact of aging on health care costs may be much less than we thought.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information recently issued a report on health care cost drivers, looking at a variety of issues.
Overall CIHI says that aging accounts for an 0.8 per cent annual increase to the cost of health care.
“We have probably spent 40 per cent of our time on health care.” – Don Drummond, Toronto Star, November 10, 2011
There is no question that health care will figure predominantly in the Drummond Commission’s report expected in January.
The Commission was struck last march to look at “reforming” Ontario’s public services. The Commission has chosen who to meet with — it has not been an open process. There have been no public hearings.
With no public release, the contents of the Drummond Commission’s preliminary report are slowly emerging via statements from the party leaders.
The latest is from PC leader Tim Hudak, who said Drummond is recommending a 2 per cent per year reduction in spending on everything outside of health and education to 2018/19. Hudak says his party would support the minority Liberals on implementing that plan.
Earlier in the week Dalton McGuinty said that the government would constrain spending increases to one per cent per year, which is a significant cut when inflation is running at 3.4 per cent.
Posted in Health System
Tagged Drummond Commission, Niagara Region Medical Officer of Health
Why aren’t we spending $200 billion on public health care in Ontario?
In the early 1990s the straight-line cost projections suggested that by 2012 that’s where our health care spending would be.
Instead we are spending $47 billion – less than 25 per cent of what the “experts” told us would happen.
Posted in Health System
Tagged Don Drummond, health care sustainability, Mowat Centre, Will Falk
New to Diablogue? These are among the stories that have most captured the attention of our readers since we began in January 2010.
Health care workers face anxiety, fatigue and burnout as a result of “role overload.”
Posted in Health System
Dalton McGuinty may well need to consider the age old question, which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Commenting last week on the preliminary recommendations of the Drummond Commission, McGuinty said government spending will have to be limited to increases of only 1 per cent per year to 2018. He says this will be necessary because of the slow economic growth former bank economist Don Drummond is predicting over the next six years.
Former TD Bank VP Don Drummond is soon expected to issue his report on how we can makeover public services in Ontario. With health care taking up about 40 per cent of provincial program spending, it is certain that Drummond will have much to say on the sector. Having spent time on a Canadian Medical Association panel earlier this year and having publicly beaten the subject to death while at the TD Bank, it will not be hard to predict where he is going.
There is some question as to whether Drummond’s report will ever be made public, placed in a drawer and forgotten, or quietly used to provide guidance to the McGuinty government.
Posted in Health System
Tagged Don Drummond; Health Tax; Alex Himelfarb, Jean Charest
Compared to the United States, Canada’s health care system appears to be the model of efficiency. The United States continues to be an outlier when it comes to health care. Americans spend a greater percentage of their overall economy on health care than in any other United Nations member state – except for East Timor. And yet many of their key outcome indicators are well below countries that spend far less.
According to international OECD data (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), in 2008 Canada spent $4,079 (US) per capita on both private and public health care. The US spent $7,538 (US).
What we often forget in these comparisons is about a third of our health care system is very much like the United States. Most of us do not pull out our OHIP card when we visit the dentist or the pharmacy. When Dalton McGuinty was first elected in 2004, he established a dedicated health care tax that brings in about $3 billion per year. He also delisted physiotherapy, eye exams and chiropractic care. Most now have to pay for these services through private insurance or out-of-pocket. Now we are seeing more Ontarians, tired of waiting for home care services, paying out-of-pocket to get service from the same agencies that are responsible for providing public care. According to the Ontario Home Care Association, 20 million hours – or about 40 per cent of home care – is purchased privately.
With a majority government in Ottawa, will Prime Minister Stephen Harper thumb his nose at provinces seeking a fresh deal that would transfer billions to sustain their cash-strapped health systems?
Provincial Health Ministers may be discussing strategies to avoid such a catastrophe when they meet in Halifax next month.
You don’t have to look further than the Occupy movement to realize that public policy has been skewed by a focus on changes to the gross domestic product (GDP) – a measure of change in the size of the overall economy.
Changes in economic activity don’t necessarily tell us whether we’re sacrificing our work-life balance to maintain our standard of living, whether new wealth is only flowing to those at the very top, or whether such growth is at the expense of the environment, critical for all human life.
The first ever Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW) was released this month to provide an alternate way of looking at public policy decisions through a more rational evidence-based lens.
Posted in Health System
Tagged Canadian Index of Wellbeing, CIW, Income inequality, Monique Begin, Roy Romanow
OPSEU Diablogue 