Health care system in Canada not sustainable

Canada, 15th March: Increasing health care costs in Canada are proving to be a big burden for the Federal Government.

Health spending is consuming a large proportion of the government’s funds and if the trend continues, it will take toil on the very basic public services in Canada like education, social services etc.

Immediate and serious health care reforms need to be implemented as soon as possible to reduce the health care spending which currently is eating nearly 70¢ of each provincial dollar spent in the period of last 12 years.

The crisis is clearly visible for the Ontario government to take quick action in this regard. Considering the trend of health care costs in Ontario for the last 10 years, the costs have gone up by 7.3 percent as compared to an increase of just 5.6 percent in the total available revenues for the province.

Taking a look at the health care spending between 2008 and 2009, the figures have grown by 4.5 percent whereas the total available revenues have gone down by five percent. If no steps are taken to introduce cuts in the health care costs, then Ontario will have no option but to spend half of its total available revenues on the health care by 2010.

Canadian government needs help by introducing private sector sources for financing the health care services which, at present, are being borne by the provincial government.

The chaotic situation in Canada’s health care can be attributed to a misallocation of health care resources in the country. The reason is that the supply of services (health care) is not in accordance with the demand.

WHAT IS NEEDED------

• A dialogue is needed with Canadians, specifically with Ontarians, about the rising costs of health care since they are proving too much for budgetary limits of Canadian government.

• Making health care funding ‘patient-based’ rather than ‘activity-based’ for hospitals.

• People need to be made more responsible for their individual health care and pay a part of the total health care services offered to them. This will help in adopting a rational approach towards using health care services among Canadians.