May 31, 2010
Keeping an eye on medical stats
By George T. Baker, Prince Rupert Daily News
Canada’s predicted imbalance of seniors to youth by 2036 will cause an overburden of the nation’s prescription drug costs, according to a report by TD Economics.
Estimates, released last Wednesday by Statistics Canada, indicated the population of over-65s will more than double, from 4.7 million in 2009 to between 9.9 million and 10.9 million by 2036. Seniors will surpass children aged 14 and under between 2015 and 2021.
The TD report states that benefits provided to seniors under provincially funded drug programs are a key driver of health cost growth in Canada.
“Given that use of pharmaceuticals is heavily skewed to seniors, the rapid age-related escalation in public health costs in Canada almost certainly reflects provincial pharmacare programs.
The reports authors, Don Drumond and Derek Burleton, compared the age-benefit profiles in 10 countries. What it showed was the level of public health spending per person in Canada rises much faster than eight jurisdictions (all but the United States) for individuals 65 years and over. In particular, Canadians 75-79 years received five-times the benefit levels of those 50-64 years compared to 2-4 times in most other countries.
They urged “the expansion of private sector involvement in the provision of health care.”
But they were also quick to point out that it doesn’t mean a full blow privatized system or a parallel private-public system.
“There is little evidence from other countries that privately-funded systems bring cost savings with equivalent access and quality of care.
“There is no simple answer to this question. The acceptability of how an economy divvies up its income share or a government allocates its revenues boils down to choices of its residents. In addition, many view Canada’s system of healthcare as a key part of their identity,” wrote Drummond and Burleton.
“At the same time, however, it is likely that many [Canadians] have not come to grips with the potential risk to their future quality of life from the Healthcare Pac Man. The concern does not lie with healthcare’s increasing footprint in the provincial economy. Rather, the worry is more linked to the sustainability of the provincial budget”
The report focuses on Ontario, but the theme stretches across the nation, where provincial government, including here in B.C., have bemoaned the rising costs of personal health.
B.C., Alberta and Ontario have are the top three provinces in healthcare spending increases by percentage, Ontario has been at the upper end of the provincial ranking in terms of percentage increase in overall health spending over the past two decades – ranking third behind only Alberta and British Columbia.
Still, similar to Canada’s two western¬most jurisdictions, an important contributor of Ontario’s growth rate has been the province’s higher-than-average population gain over the period.
A form of privatization has long been a cause here in B.C., advocated strongly for by the former president of the Canadian Medical Association, Brian Day.
But Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen said he felt “shy” when user-pay came into the public healthcare system, but if there were ways to support Canadians that cannot afford prescription drugs, then he was all for it.
“If we are subsidizing people that are loaded already, I have concerns,” said Cullen.
Cullen added that underneath all this is the idea that a national pharmacare program is a natural solution to the public health care system,
“It is something we need to get a hold of, because we need to control the costs.”
