Canadian Doctors for Medicare, 2006

Some delivery models can undermine equitable access and reduce the quality of care provided to most Canadians. Therefore, a systematic, principled approach to assessing any proposed clinic, hospital, surgical centre, or other health care entity intended to deliver services within the publicly financed system is recommended.

The field of alternative delivery is now mature enough that operators can be clear about what service models support the principles of the Canada Health Act and which ones subvert them. The criteria used by governments, physicians, and the public should be transparent and in the public’s interest.

Building on Values: The Future of Health Care in Canada

Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada, 2002

Taken together, the 47 recommendations contained in this report serve as a roadmap for a collective journey by Canadians to reform and renew their health care system. They outline actions that must be taken in 10 critical areas, starting by renewing the foundations of medicare and moving beyond our borders to consider Canada’s role in improving health around the world.

Building on Values: The Future of Health Care in Canada

Sustainable Healthcare for Seniors: Keeping It Public

Parkland Institute, 2008

The government of Alberta has consistently used the threat of the aging baby boomers to undermine confidence in the sustainability of public healthcare. According to the Alberta government, “In coming years, Alberta’s healthcare system will face increasing pressure from an aging population, new medical advances and the rising cost of prescription drugs. Without making changes, Alberta’s public healthcare system will not be sustainable.”

The government has established a commission to review demographic trends and the implications of aging for seniors supports. The anticipated outcomes will include “strategies that encourage future seniors to plan for self-reliance and independence."

The report includes an independent demographic analysis of the growing number of seniors in Alberta, and a calculus of their added costs to the healthcare system. It will place this into the context of an economic analysis of affordability, putting Alberta’s healthcare costs in perspective, using international, national, and provincial considerations of affordability. Finally, the report presents recommendations for both an improved healthcare model for seniors and reductions in health expenditures in the long-term.

However, the motivation for reform is better health, not cost savings.

Sustainable Healthcare for Seniors: Keeping It Public

Wait Times Tables—A Comparison by Province, 2009

Canadian Institute for Health Information, 2009

First ministers met in the fall of 2004. They listed timely access to quality care at the top of their collective agenda. Together, they agreed to focus on better management of wait times and on reducing waits that are longer than medically acceptable in five priority areas: cancer, heart, diagnostic imaging, joint replacement and sight restoration. To assist in achieving these goals provinces agreed to establish and report on progress for specific wait time indicators and benchmarks. As part of this plan, the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) was asked to report on progress on wait times across jurisdictions.

Initially, reporting was limited and not comparable from one province to another. Since then, provinces have worked on reporting, managing and reducing wait times. All provinces have now established websites dedicated to wait time information with a focus on the general public. Some have also developed sites for health care professionals with information to assist with the management of waits. Provincial commitment to wait time measurement has become evident in reporting that has been more consistent and complete every year since 2005.

This fourth consecutive annual report provides an overview of provincial data and information on wait times. This year for the first time, the provinces have submitted wait time data (tables 4 to 10) following specified parameters, the first part of a two-year process to enhance comparability. Provinces provided data on waits at the median, 90th percentile and percent-meeting-benchmark levels as near to the parameters as their respective data collection permitted. While these data are more comparable, they must still be viewed with some caution. The extent to which differences in provincial wait times are related to variations in definitions versus real differences in waits cannot be determined at this time.

Wait Times Tables—A Comparison by Province

Why Wait? Public Solutions to Cure Surgical Waitlists

Alicia Priest, Michael Rachlis and Marcy Cohen

BC Health Coalition & Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (BC Office), 2007

Waiting for elective surgery is the hottest political issue facing Canadian health care today. In fact, it’s no exaggeration to say that how waitlists are managed – or not – could seal the fate of Medicare.

The central point of this paper – and the good news – is that better management is happening right now in BC and elsewhere, and as a result waitlists for certain surgical procedures have decreased dramatically. Changes to public health care policies and practices by dedicated health professionals have cut months from wait times while reducing lengths of stay in hospital and increasing patient satisfaction.

Positive information of this nature deserves to be celebrated, especially in these times of health care gloom and doom. The public needs to know that these projects exist; that there are viable, economically achievable solutions, and that they hold great promise for improving Medicare.

Why Wait? Public Solutions to Cure Surgical Waitlists (Summary)

Canada’s Health Care System and the Sustainability Paradox

Irfan Dhalla, MD

Canadian Medical Association Journal, 2007

Physician leaders, newspaper columnists, representatives of the business community and even some health policy analysts5 have all expressed concerns that publicly funded health care is unsustainable. The current federal health minister has even gone so far as to say that “both the Prime Minister and I have indicated that the status quo won’t be sustainable in terms of demands on our system.”

Not everyone holds this view. For example, in his report on health care in Canada, Roy Romanow concluded that our health care system was “as sustainable as we want it to be.” Despite this countervailing argument, concerns about unsustainability have provided an impetus for proposed reform. In this article, I will argue that Canada faces a sustainability paradox: despite ever-increasing expenditures, both in absolute dollars and as a percentage of the national income, increases in overall spending on health care in Canada are sustainable for the foreseeable future.

Canada’s Health Care System and the Sustainability Paradox

Stories of Health Care Renewal

Health Council of Canada Online Library, 2009

The Health Council of Canada shines a light on what helps health care renewal and improves the well being of Canadians by highlighting stories from across the country that illustrate some of the innovation underway to improve the delivery of health care.

Stories of Health Care Renewal

Mythbusters: Using Evidence to Debunk Common Misconceptions in Canadian Healthcare

Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, 2010

Mythbusters is a series of two-page articles that summarize the best available evidence to challenge widely held beliefs about issues in Canadian healthcare.

Mythbusters: Using Evidence to Debunk Common Misconceptions in Canadian Healthcare