9 November 2010, 8:21 PM
I have an op ed in today’s Toronto Star on Medicare’s good run. The Canadian Institute for Health Information released their annual health spending numbers two weeks ago. Health care costs have decreased their share of the economy or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) slightly in 2010 - from 11.9% in 2009 to 11.7% after shooting up from 10.7% in 2008. It turns out that almost the entire increase in 2009 was due to shrinkage in the economy not increased spending.
The graph below summarizes the Canadian spending data and indicates what the results would have been for 2009 and 2010 with 1998-2008 rates of economic growth. I have put together a few slides which summarize the new data for Canada and Ontario. Please use them and distribute them.
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2 November 2009, 11:52 AM
I did interviews with nine CBC morning shows today on the troubled roll out of the H1N1 vaccine. Canadians are rightfully enraged at the chaos of last week’s H1N1 vaccine clinics. There must be a better way to run a vaccine program. There are two main reasons why the vaccine roll out looks like rush hour at a Mexican bus terminal.
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25 October 2009, 12:51 PM
After being home for a week from my trip to Alberta speaking on behalf of Friends of Medicare, I have a few reflections:
Activity-based funding
Alberta is moving to pursue a policy named “activity-based funding”. Essentially ABF is fee for service payment for hospital care. Hospitals would be paid a specific free for an episode of care such as a hip replacement. The United States government moved most of its hospital funding through their Medicare program into Diagnosis Related Groups or DRGs in 1983.
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Filed under
Travel, Wait Times
15 May 2009, 11:16 AM
On Tuesday May 5th, I met with the New Brunswick deputy minister, Don Ferguson in Fredericton with Mike McBane, the coordinator of the Canadian Health Coalition and Debbie Lacelle, co-chairperson of the New Brunswick Health Coalition. We also met with assistant deputy ministers: Jean-Marc Depuis (Planning, sustainability, and e-health), Roberte O’Reagan, Executive Director Hospital Services, and Kelli Simmonds, Executive Director Research, Planning, Evaluation, and Policy. The meeting went very well. I gave a presentation on the application of queueing theory to reduce waits and delays in our system and then we had a frank talk about public sector solutions to wait times.
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