Canadians spent about $191.6-billion on health care last year, up from $171.9-billion in 2008, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. The amount that governments are spending on health accounted for 8.4 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product in 2009, compared to 5.4 per cent in 1975. Health care is on track to account for 80 per cent of Ontario’s budget by 2030, up from 46 per cent now, Mr. Drummond says.
At the moment, fixes are being applied in a haphazard fashion. The Trillium Health Centre and Credit Valley Hospital, both in Mississauga, announced a voluntary merger this month, an unusual step that’s expected to become more common. It will result in one board, one CEO, and free up money being spent on administration so more can go towards treating patients, said Neil Skelding, who is the CEO of RBC Insurance and is on the Credit Valley Hospital’s board.
Politicians have shown little appetite for major health-care reform. Critics say the only thing federal politicians are talking about is the 6-per-cent annual increase in health transfers to the provinces, part of a 10-year deal that expires in 2013-14. “The federal government should not be thinking about 6 per cent, because this isn’t about money and we’re done,” said Jeff Turnbull, president of the Canadian Medical Association. “We need an overarching strategic plan for how we’re going to transform health care.”
The CMA is forming a panel that will recommend ways to make the system more accountable. Mr. Drummond will be on it. The Ontario government’s health-care spending, which was $43.5-billion in 2009, is ballooning, and getting it under control will be necessary to fix the province’s finances. But governments tried to cut health-care spending to fix the deficit in the 1990s and that didn’t work. This time around, Mr. Drummond wants to see real change.
“Taking money out without doing the appropriate reforms really is a two- to three-year wonder at best, and then misery after,” he said.
That’s what the corporations are hoping to prevent. The investors in the Canadian Alliance for Sustainable Health Care include Sun Life Financial, TD Bank Financial Group, Bank of Nova Scotia, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, The Co-operators Group Ltd., IBM Canada Ltd., and the Hospital for Sick Children, according to a list obtained from one of those sponsors.
Medical bills
$55.3-billion
Amount that hospitals cost in 2010, up 6.2 per cent from 2009
70
Percentage of total health spending paid for by the public sector in Canada on average
45.6
Percentage of total health spending paid for by the public sector in the United States in 2008
$171.8-billion
Total health-care expenditure in Canada in 2008
$191.6-billion
Total health-care expenditure in 2010
Source: Canadian Institute for Health Information
