Defend Public Healthcare

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

As expected, the Drummond Commission has proposed the province shrink and privatize hospital services. 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.  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. The main target for Drummond cuts in health care spending are hospitals. Drummond is recycling ideas from the Harris era, when the government justified hospital cuts with the claim that they would improve care in the community.  Eventually, after repeated crises, the Harris government quietly changed their policy and began funding hospitals again. Initially, Drummond had tried to distance himself from the Harris policies, but today he only noted that the cuts would be longer than in the Harris era. Like Harris, Drummond su

Corporate health care bosses are making out like bandits in the homeland of health care privatization - -the USA.  Healthcare and pharmaceutical executives were four of the top 10 best paid executives in the United States in 2010, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) reports.   John Hammergren, chief executive of the drug distributor McKesson Corp, was the top earner, with total remuneration of $145 266 971 (US).  If he were to be fired, he would receive $469m in severance pay.  That might make up for the shock. Number two was Joel Gemunder, chief executive of Omnicare, a geriatric pharmaceutical care company.  He earned $98, 283 242 when he retired in 2010. With an income like that, it's OK to be number 2.   Fifth highest paid boss was Thomas Ryan, head of the CVS Caremark pharmacy chain. He received $68 079 823. Ninth in pay was Ronald Williams, chief executive of the Aetna health insurance firm, who squeaked  into the top ten with a final pay cheque of $57, 787 786. Poor

The Drummond report on public services is coming out tomorrow (Wednesday) between 2:25 pm and 3 pm, reportedly. Drummond has said that many of his proposals will not be supported by the government.  So some of the proposals are non-starters right from the get go.  But they may provide cover for the Liberal government when they come in with their own package of cuts. Drummond is being used to set the government up as the voice of "moderation" I reckon. Incredibly, Mop and Pail columnist Andre Picard suggests that the objections to these proposals from some (like the Ontario Health Coalition) are based on "mock outrage".  Does Picard actually believe the outrage is mock?  No doubt his comment pleased Picard's editors' at the Globe , but it is far from the truth. It is not 'mock outrage' that is driving the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) and others to work so hard to respond to Drummond.  It is real fear about the future of public healthcare.  T

Health Minister Deb Matthews signalled that the LHINs would decide which surgeries and tests should be shifted from hospitals to clinics, the Ottawa Citizen reports.  "We will expect the LHINs to do the work to determine what, if any, procedures there are that could be better delivered in the community," Matthews said. Moving work out of hospitals is a major policy direction for the Ontario Liberal government. LHINs are, of course, supposed to integrate health care (their full name is Local Health Integration Network) so it is amusing that they are now supposed to fragment health care by moving work to new providers.  (Oh what a tangled web we weave...) The Citizen also reports Matthews hinted that she would be open to having the Ottawa Hospital's cataract clinic spun off as a stand-alone corporation, if health officials can demonstrate that such a move "would provide high-quality care at a lower price."  Currently, the Ottawa Hospital clinic provides

The National Audit Office (NAO) in Britain finds  profits for investors were expected to exceed the target of 12% to 15% in 84 of the 118 public private partnership (P3) projects that it analyzed . Instead, investors regularly see profits of between 15% and 30% by selling their equity in the secondary market. The government responded to the report by stating the analysis “needs to take into account a wider range of issues that together contribute to the overall economics of a transaction, rather than merely looking at equity returns”. For its part, Construction News   concludes   "the  root cause (for the high profits) is that civil servants are not sufficiently competent to stand up to bankers on complex financial issues." I'd say even 12% to 15% percent  is a pretty good return (never mind 15% to 30%) --  especially when  the investors are dealing with a pretty safe credit risk -- the government.  The NAO report itself concludes, "investors be

Premier McGuinty returned to the issue of public sector wages in a talk to an elite Ottawa audience:  "We can't tackle the deficit without tackling  public sector wages  and salaries. That accounts for one half of all government spending -- about $55-billion. It is simply not possible to reduce spending without addressing salary expenditures...I cannot guarantee there will be no interruption in public services. But I can guarantee our government will negotiate fairly and firmly to a result that keeps us on a sure and steady path to eliminate the deficit...  I’m sending a message to our public sector partners . . . there are legitimate public expectations that we’ll do everything we can to eliminate the deficit as quickly as we can ." When asked, McGuinty did not rule out job cuts and wage reductions, saying only that details would be spelled out in the provincial budget -- which is usually released in March. Inflation is currently running at 2% in Ontario.