Defend Public Healthcare

Hospitals typically benchmark against each other to determine care levels and efficiency.   But when Ontario hospitals are bench marked against hospitals in other provinces, a pattern clearly emerges – under-funding and under-capacity.   This post will loo at under-funding, a later one will look at under-capacity Provincial hospital funding per-capita is 28.3% higher in the rest of Canada than in Ontario — $404.09 more per person per year.   The gap between Ontario and the rest of Canada is a relatively new phenomenon.   For decades we were in lock-step with the rest of Canada.   We have fallen far behind since 2006. Provincial health care funding as a whole is 14% higher per person in the rest of Canada compared to Ontario.   That amounts to $561.08 higher per person, per year.   The gap in overall health care funding between Ontario and the rest of Canada developed at the same time as the gap for hospital funding developed.   Hospital under-funding accounts for almost t

Bowing to public pressure and the over-capacity crisis in our hospitals, the Ontario minister of health and long-term care, Eric Hoskins, announced Friday hospital funding of $187 million to deal with next year’s flu season. While this is significant it is inadequate for several reasons: The funding is for the  next fiscal year. In other words, the minister is merely leaking information that would normally be released with the Budget. Most of this is not new money. Following pressure from labour and the community, the minister announced  $100 million for hospitals last fall to fund 1,200 beds.  But the government also made clear that money may not continue in the next fiscal year starting April 2018 -- the continuation of the funding would depend on the "budgetary process".  So this announcement merely confirms that this money will continue at least one more year and, positively, that they will increase the annual funding for this

Real p rovincial government health care funding per-person has fallen again this year in Ontario, the third year in a row.  Since 2009 real funding per-person has fallen 2.6% -- $63 per person.  Across Canada real per person funding is in its fourth consecutive year of increase. Since 2009, real provincial funding across Canada is up $89 -- 3.6%. In fact the funding gap between Ontario and Canada as a whole has gown consistently for years (as set out below in current dollars). Ontario funds health care less than any other province -- indeed, the province that funds health care the second least (B.C.) provides $185 more per person per year, 4.7% more.   Provincial health care spending in the rest of Canada (excluding Ontario) is now  $574 higher per person annually than in Ontario.   Ontario has not always provided lower than average health care funding increases-- but that has been the general pattern since 2005. Private expenditures on health care

In  the lead up to the Budget, the government crowed  that they had heard the public and would improve funding for hospitals. However, based on government  announcements, they actually plan to lower the hospital funding increase this year.   They state they will increase hospital funding $518 million, a 3% increase.  But, on closer inspection, the funding increase announced for last year was significantly higher. In the 2016 Budget, Ontario announced that it would increase hospital funding $345 million -- about a 2% increase.  Subsequently, the government announced another $140.3 million for hospital funding in the Fall Economic Statement – bringing the total increase to $485 million.   That is, of course, already quite close to the much ballyhooed hospital funding increase of $518 million for 2017/18.  But it looks very much like the actual hospital funding increase in 2016/17 was higher than $485 million – higher in fact than the $518 million increase announced for 2017

Funding for hospital services in 2015/16 was 25% more in the rest of Canada than in Ontario. S ome have tried to downplay this, arguing that economies of scale should allow Ontario to provide hospital care more cheaply.   Notably, however, the World Health Organization dismisses the notion that economies of scale are a significant factor in hospital costs: It is tempting to think that larger hospitals are more cost-effective than smaller ones because of the operation of economies of scale.   However, the evidence does not back up this belief.   While increasing hospital size can cut costs for some specific procedures, such economics are exhausted at a relatively small size. In any case, with a population dispersed over a large geographic area, Ontario has scores of small hospitals, despite its large population.   Moreover, in other provinces, small hospitals are managed by larger regional health organizations, while in Ontario they are not.   If there were economies of s

  The government's unaudited financial statements for 2015-16 have been released (in lieu of the Public Accounts) and the deficit is down another $700 million from the last government estimate. Combined with earlier reductions, that means they came in with a deficit $3.5 billion less than they originally budgeted for 2015-16 in the 2015 budget.  Revenue for 2015-16 is up   $4 billion compared with the 2015 Budget forecast and up $2 billion from the 2016-17 Budget estimate for 2015-16.  This is good news.  After years of disappointing increases in revenue, we now have a whopper of a year. Revenue increased $9.8 billion between 2014/15 and 2015/16 - - that is an 8.3% increase. Two billion of this is related to the Hydro sell-off.  But there are big increases in revenue from corporate taxes (up 19%), income taxes (up 6.2%) and sales taxes (up 8.1%). Money is rolling in. Interest on debt is down $400 million compared to the 2015 Budget estimate and down $200 mi