Defend Public Healthcare

New data  published by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (and based on a mandatory survey undertaken by Statistics Canada) indicates that staffing at Ontario long-term care facilities (LTC) falls short of other provinces.  The Long-Term Care Facilities Survey indicates that Ontario has 0.598 health care full time equivalent staff (FTE) per LTC bed. Canada (excluding Quebec, which is not included in the survey) has 0.641 staff per bed.   In other words, Canada as a whole has 7.2% more health care staff per resident compared to Ontario. This despite the relatively low number of higher paid nursing staff in Ontario. RNs and especially RPNs are underrepresented among all health care staff in Ontario LTC facilities, with RNs comprising just 11.5% of health care FTEs and RPNs comprising just 19.3% of health care FTEs. Across Canada the corresponding figures are 13% and 25.6%. Fewer RPNs to RNs: Ontario has a relatively low number of RPNs compared to RNs in LTC faci

Government data suggests for-profit long-term care bed s are less desired by the public than not-for-profit beds.    There are long wait lists for a beds in long-term care (LTC) facilities.  (This is driven by the government's decision to add only a few new LTC beds despite the rapid growth in the number of people 85 and older, the main users of these beds.) But some LTC facilities attract longer line-ups than others. In early 2014, there were 41,842 beds at private, for-profit LTC facilities in Ontario (54% of the total of 78,138 beds).  But only 6,781 people in the community put themselves on a wait list for one of these beds.  In other words, each for-profit bed has 0.16 people on the wait list for it.    In contrast, there were 19,599 not-for-profit LTC beds (25% of the total), but 9,113 people put themselves on the wait list for them.   In other words, there were 0.46 people waiting for a not-for-profit bed.   That is 2.9 times higher demand than fo

A new study from the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows   sharply   increasing inefficiency in the Canadian for-profit health care insurance industry.   The study indicates that less and less of the  premiums in employer health insurance plans are paid out in benefits by the for-profit insurance industry.   Since 1991, the amount paid out in benefits has declined from 92% to 74% in 2011.   The rest goes for profits, administration, and other items.     The benefit pay-out is less than required by US law - - which now requires that 80% to 85% of health insurance premiums are paid out in clinical care and quality improvement.   While this is bad, plans purchased from for-profit insurance corporations by individuals do much worse, with benefits paid declining from 46% to 38% of premiums .   In contrast, employers that self-insure  (where employers pay claims themselves and purchase only processing services from insurance companies) do much better – with be

The Ontario public sector spends less than almost all other provinces on health care.  And it's falling further behind.   Over the most recent four years per capita spending increased 9.7% across Canada, but only 5.2% in Ontario.  With this, the  Ontario public sector spends less per person than any other province except Quebec.  Ontario and Canadian per capita public sector health care spending in current dollars Ontario public sector spending equaled $3,952 per person in 2013, but the all-Canada average was 6.3% (or $248) higher, at $4,200 per person, according to a new report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).  Heading for the bottom: Quebec, alone, does spend slightly   less than Ontario: $8 per year per person less.  But even that is changing.  In 2010, Quebec spent 7% less than Ontario, now they spend less than a quarter of a percent less.   With  a policy of real cuts in Ontario,  per capita public sector spending on health care has gon