The Drummond Commission into the reform of public services in Ontario has proposed the province shrink and privatize hospital services. Funding: Drummond has recommended that health care funding be limited to 2.5% until 2017-18. This is considerably less than the 3.6% increase proposed by the Liberals not long before the election. Notably, even that proposal caused the Auditor General to observe in his pre-election review of Ontario's finances that $1 billion in hospital savings would have to be made (in addition to a two year wage freeze). This would be a drastic reduction in health care funding increases, which have averaged 7% since the Liberals came to power eight years ago. Health care costs are driven by inflation, population growth, and aging. Together these factors are significant cost drivers, likely over 4% per year. But costs are also driven by a public that wants new health care services. When new services become available that prolong or improve their
Notes from Leftwords -- Doug Allan