Thanks Will

This article and many others that you have presented to us in the past year or so show that the MSM is derelict in their duties. One would assume that if you are able to obtain these statistics, the MSM must also have access to them. Where is their investigative reporting? It's getting so bad that I suspect that if the PAB issued a news release and a concerted campaign that the BC Liberal Party has deduced that the Earth is flat, the message would be brought forth to us by the MSM unchallenged.

Even worse, one would assume that the research staff of the official opposition also have access to this information. Why have they not been bringing this information forth? We just went through an election a year and a half ago and I sure don't recall the BC NDP mentioning any of this in their last campaign. Maybe if they spent less time on gender quotas, that really have no personal effect on the majority of voters, and much more on things that have an impact our everyday lives, they would have fared better last time.

But Where does spending end?

No matter what political party is in power, health care spending is problematic.

Spending on health care costs are escalating at an unprededented upward rate. The problem with this article is that such assumes that it is 'ok' to throw more at the problem; that it is 'ok' to let healthcare costs consume the majority of the public budget. But what other programs suffer as a result and what effect does the unfettered increase in healthcare costs do to the overall advance of our society. There has to be a balsnce.

I am convinced that the entire health care system needs to be nationalized and removed from provincial control. We need Federal standards for Health, Dental, eyecare and pharmacuetical, rehabilitation, diagnostics, plus training standards/facilities to support Doctors, their specialties, nurses and medical technicians in order to have a truly consistent system no matter where you live in Canada.

We also need to rationalize the administrative costs, wages and the cost of medical technology. There are a host of unbelievable costs for simple things like a hospital bed. Medical infrastructure costs need a rethink.

We need both sides of the story and Will only complains about spending...... that is NOT the answer!

who counts in bc

If you are not rich or very greedy like gordo and gang you just don't count. Your health needs can just be ignored like many kids in need of proper support.

Half a story

The Liberals crying wolf is bad.
The Liberals spending less on health care is not necessarily bad. There's no case here that service levels are lower than other provinces.

sdgreen

That means getting rid of both Harper AND Ignatieff..........perhaps Duceppe for PM?

Perhaps some attention

Perhaps some attention should also be given to the causes of health problems, unless it wouldn't be "business friendly", without any qualifications of what "businesses" we're talking about ?

Under the present criminal economic theory the world's economy, especially food, is being criminally collectivized and kolkhozified in the hands of a few of the multinational corporate mafia, with healthy, locally grown foods replaced by imported garbage, reeking of chemicals and preservatives.

The whole system is built around the destruction of real private enterprise and its replacement with global collectivization, Stalin and Mao couldn't even dream about, all in the name of "wealth creating, globally competitive free enterprise and the free movement of capital.

The NAFTA and EU are good examples. NAFTA ruined Mexican subsistence farming and replaced it with drug wars.

In the EU 7 million Polish farms are expected to be wiped out, something not even the communists could manage, and replaced by chemically laden agribiz kolkhozes . In Romania the EU already reduced the number of family farms from 480,000 to 50,000 in 4 years, jamming more people into cities, filling their stomachs with chemical garbage .
Our hospitals are jammed with cancer patients, including children that was unheard of even 50 years ago. And it wasn't because of the idiotic claim that the detection wasn't up to present standards, but because no kids died and no women had breast cancers, now the rates growing in leaps and bounds every year.

And all we can hear about is begging for donations for cancer cures, but nothing about prevention by searching for and eliminating the causes.

By the way, I had 5 operations in'09, starting with colon cancer, never heard of years ago.

Ed Deak.

It's easy!

It's easy to figure out where all the money goes. Here's the headline from Mytelus.com, "CEOs made 155 times more than the average Canadian despite recession: study". Now add to those payments shareholders dividends, corporate bounuses and expenses, no taxes to governments, excessive corporate profits and you can see why this government can't balance the books and has to introduce ever higher user fees (I believe this is co-ordinated with the US private health care providers).

As for comeagain's comment, I wonder if he has been to a hospital recently? If he has then he would have noticed how poor the food is, how messes are allowed to accumulate, people on beds or gurneys in the hallways.

Yes the MSP needs more money but the system must be streamlined. Generic drugs should be used instead of the big Pharma's. We have to take the business profit out of the equation. This is a service not a business!

These numbers aren't very

These numbers aren't very helpful without a comparison to the bang we're getting for our buck.

Sure we're spending less money, but that's only a bad thing if there is a corresponding decrease in health services and British Columbians are less healthy as a result.

While that may be true, it's hard to pass judgment without seeing some data to suggest that's the case.

Fascist Healthcare

You have to be rich to get decent health care in BC these days. I am sure the wealthy do not go to our infection laden hospitals where they run a significant chance of dying . I am sure they do not put up with year long waiting lists for a consultation with a surgeon or a month delay in ultasound after a serious fall. This current government MUST go! Regardless of what other manipulating deceitful person they bring in to replace Gordon. Remember ALL the current MLAs supported him....and the residents of this province paid...and paid...and still pay...

Health Care Spending

2001 Fiscal Year:

BC Health Expenditures: $8.985 billion
(2001 BC Public Accounts)
Portion of Provincial Budget: 34.18%
Population: 4,076,264
(BC Stats)
Per Capita: $2,204.22

2010 Fiscal Year:

BC Health Expenditures: $15.515 billion
(2010 BC Public Accounts)
Portion of Provincial Budget: 39.48%
Population: 4,530,960
(BC Stats)
Per Capita: $3,424.22

2001 - 2010:

Total Population Growth: 11.15%
Total Health Expenditure Growth: 72.68%
Per Capita Health Expenditure Growth: 55.35%

StatsCan's recent Canadian Community Health Survey shows that BC is the healthiest province in Canada along with having the lowest obesity rates. That finding obviously has an impact upon per capita health expenditures.

The Frontier Centre for Public Policy rates BC second overall (behind Ontario) in terms of overall health care systems. And the BC Progress Board ranks BC in first position in Canada in terms of health outcomes.

Obviously BC is getting a better bang for its buck.

BTW, Mustel shows health care as "An Issue of Top Concern" by only 13% of the populace.

Irrespective of the foregoing, perhaps the NDP leadership hopefuls will all promise to increase health care funding by another ~$800 per capita (like AB., SK, and MB)?

They would then concurrently need to explain to BC'ers that the provincial deficit will need to increase by another $3.625 billion per annum for that to occur!

Such a proclamation would likely precipitate another likely 10 point drop for the NDP in public opinion polls.

health costs

Thanks for providing the source of your statistics. I found the document highly illuminating and will be gleaning this document for awhile.

One thing I notice was the amount physicians take from the health budget in Canada.

The increase from year 2000 to 2008 has been substantial. From $400 per capita in 2000 to $700 per capita in 2008.

I would love to have doctors negotiating with my employer for me.

And I would like to go further than Will in proposing that governments get back into directly funding drug research and development so that the profit motive and the high cost of marketing is removed.

After all don't we all fund pharmaceutical research, development and marketing through either government pharmacare plans (our taxes) or through our own individual purchases at the drug store?

Will generic drug companies fund new drug research and development? Often Big Pharma, the owners of branded drugs will introduce a generic version before its patent expires to beat out its competition.

Through our government we decide when and what drugs get developed for the betterment of our health. Do we really need the hundreds of thousands of pharmaceuticals now available on the market?

Marketing drugs in the US is estimated at more than $30 billion a year. We pay for these M-ad Men and their marketing schemes, those ad nauseams.

Hardly!

Obviously BC is getting a better bang for its buck. (Luke Skywalker)

It would appear you don't have anyone IN the BC Health Care "System"...because we are not getting a 'better bang for our buck'.

I've spent most of the last ten days trying to negotiate the health care system in this province for a close relative.

It is a horrendous, cash-starved and crippled wreck.

Those greedy doctors !!

"One thing I notice was the amount physicians take from the health budget in Canada.
The increase from year 2000 to 2008 has been substantial. From $400 per capita in 2000 to $700 per capita in 2008."

Of course, that doesn't take into account the substantial increase in physician's overhead costs in those years, does it? Office space, increases in staff costs, as well as staff, ever increasing computer technology costs, etc. But none of that counts if you ignore half the equation.

The Healthcare SHAM

I noticed driving down highway 97 between Vernon and Penticton that a new wing is being built onto the hospital at Vernon. I know that it is common for the right wing to build structures and then not utilize them fully. It seems that the lieberals may very well be building new structures in order to include them as part of the real estate package to go along with the handing over to private interests once they've run public healthcare into the ground.

I've spent 44 days in the

I've spent 44 days in the hospital in '09, much of it in a private room, hooked up to dozens of tubes and wires, 3 weeks on life support, without any food or water.

Thanks to the South African import doctors and the local nurses, the care and service were excellent. As I understand, much of the hospital food is now trucked in from hundreds of km. then warmed up in microwaves that kill all food food values. Might as well eat paper, which may also be the cause of many of the present healthcare costs.

The worst and most disgusting part was, something I've never experienced, or heard of before, in the multibed rooms, where men and women are jammed together, spending their days locked up behind curtains listening to the most intimate and private problems of each other.

Then come the PPPs, the most idiotic and criminal waste of money. The debts may not be on public books, but the public has to pay for them, at much higher costs than when borrowed, because we now also have to pay for the profits and the interests of the private borrowers.

But, these are the "economics" sold by the "prestigious conservative think tanks"

Those extra costs the public has to pay for PPPs could easily cover the costs of separate rooms for men and women to exist in a bit more comfort and decency.

Now try to explain this to braindead, conservative politicians.

Daaaaaaaaaaaaa...?????????? "But the Fraser Institute advised us ....!!!!"

Ed Deak.

Do $$ and quality of care have a linear relationship?

Will, love your stuff but I must agree with nolanrh here. The Campbellbots can easily spin this into a story of how they saved money by "realizing efficiencies" and other such blather. Which may have a grain of truth, who knows? I wouldn't know from reading your article, and that is the first thing that came to mind.

Were the expenditures reduced by reducing Pharmacare costs by group purchasing power of more generic drugs? Were our wait times longer or shorter?

Also, some sort of comparison between the cases which are treated publicly and those which are treated privately (and illegally) in those False Creek clinics--which have proliferated unchecked during Gord "I spit in your face" Campbell's rule--would be illuminating.

Keep up the good work, and I hope to read more reporting on this in the future.

Health Care

I really don't have a comment but I do have a few questions. My mother-in-law lives in Ontario Toronto too be exact....My question is this up until about a year ago never had too pay for health care and there are a few other provinces in the same catagory now why is British Columbian's have too pay through the nose for everything. Our health care is getting beyond reasonable. I know I for one am tired of footing the bill for the rest of Canada. 20 years ago everyone wanted too separate from Canada and go our separate ways well I am all for it and see how far we can get 20 years down the road probably alot better off since we don't see any benefits from Ottawa except wanting more money

It is a serious misconstruction

to equate level of public health with the level of health care spending. Note yesterday's CBC breaking story on the declining level of fitness (less exercise, more obesity, etc.) among Canadians. If we live poorly we are likely to sicken and die sooner, consuming higher levels of medical intervention along the way. Combine such trends with an aging population and it is easy to see why medical budgets are rising and still inadequate. (I recognize that poverty, another issue exacerbated by the Liberals, has a strong influence in how well one can eat, as well as in one's recreational opportunities to improve fitness.)

Nonetheless, it is hardly responsible for a government to take on a public mandate (public schools, public medicare, etc.) and then do a shoddy job of it simply to fund tax cuts to corporate buddies, a strategy that has characterized BC government for the past decade.

The NDP has always had a more sound vision of the public economy and how to represent the interests of the population as a whole rather than pander to the excessive demands of the "owners" of the country. American jurist John Jay once remarked (referring to the USA) that the country ought to be run by the people who own it. If ultimate ownership of the abstraction called "the Crown" constitutes ownership in the name of all Canada's citizens, then public welfare should be managed for all, not just for the few, a goal promoted strongly by the NDP (and not by the Liberals).

Publicly funded services such as health care and education must be front and center in the leadership contests and in the next election. The abysmal Liberal record must be emphasized again and again.

Will always gives us good

Will always gives us good articles about the Liberal mismangement of BC. I've got a question for Will; how come you have never been on the Bill Good, Christy Clark or the Mike Smyth programs on CKNW?

Conversation On Health

The Conversation On Health blew up in the Liberals faces and of course very little was said about it in our so called MSM.

This exercise was meant to scare the people attending, of which I was one, into believing that our Health Care was no longer sustainable.
The great majority of the people attending, picked at large from those putting their name forward for consideration, told the Liberals in no uncertain terms that the Health Care was indeed sustainable and told them to fix it and how to fix it.

People that attended were from all walks of life and most if not all came extremely well prepared and absolutely crushed the opposition that were carefully planted by the organizers.

The people of BC got exactly what they deserved by electing these Liberal hooligans not once but three times.

By the way, the cost of our Health Care in 2007 when the Conversation took place was a princely $8.14. for each person in BC. Probably a lot less than this Luke creature spends on his morning coffee and bagel.
Just think what our Health care would be like if we ALL spent a few more bucks to make it what it could and should be.??

There was a web site on the Conversation On Health but it seems to have been yanked by the Liberals. Maybe some enterprising computer wizz can find it and post where it will be seen.
CGHZD

Likely provincial revenue

Likely provincial revenue has declined since the NDP were in power, making health care as a percentage of the budget appear larger. Provincial revenue has declined because the BC Liberals cut corporate taxes and taxes for the wealthy, royalty payments on natural gas were reduced 5% lower than Alberta, revenue was lost by privatizing liquor stores, hydro, hospital meals, and cleaning services at hospitals that resulted in increased expense to treat hospital infections, etc. There is no excuse for the NDP’s silence as the provincial coffers were emptied, and no excuse for Kevin Falcon using public health care funds to pay profit on top of cost to create wealth for a tiny minority.

Very good article, Will. Again.

In answer to VanIsle's question, Talk show hosts, at least the BC variety, don't like anyone smarter than they are on their show. It makes them look stupid.

More.... We have to export

More.... We have to export our resources to China as good economics, so we can buy the products they make from them, and so they can bring back our own money, as "wealth creating foreign investment" to buy the country up from under our feet.

Just ask the Fraser Inst. the politicians and our university economics professors and they'll tell you this is the way to "economic efficiency".

As Toronto U. economics professor emeritus John Crispo said it during the FTA debates in 1987-88, "It makes no difference who owns the country, as long capital is permitted to move freely"

This is why he became "Professor Emeritus" and adviser to Mulroney.

And this is what they're teaching for economics.

Ed Deak.

Another Critical Topic

Thank You Will McMartin for raising this important topic.

The graphs you've used in your last few articles are helpful. You know what they say about a picture versus a thousand words.

As for B.C.'s public health expenditures, as a proportion of our economy being steady how does that relate to projects that are not on the books? For example, if real Sea to Sky Highway costs, real Port Mann Freeway costs, real South Fraser Perimeter road costs, etc, were included as legitimate public expenditures, what would the proportion of health care actually be in the overall provincial budget?

And I must reiterate your question, will one of the five (now six) BC Liberal leadership hopefuls make 2011 the year that they finally level with the general public? As you have emphasized, it's not too late for the leadership candidates to abandon their campaign "gimmicks" and begin a dialogue with B.C. voters on serious issues.

Thanks again for your genuine and realitic perspective.

Camero409 you nailed it

Your comment is right on the mark. "This is co-ordinated with the US private health care providers."

Leaning on Alberta

How many British Columbians are paying to go to Alberta for health care? I have a family member who had to go to Edmonton for a procedure unavailable in BC. BC Med paid the medical cost but travel and accommodation was paid by our family. How many other BC residents do this? Informally I hear that this is not uncommon.

Pay me or Die

Health care is one of a handful of businesses in which costs don't need to be reflected in the charges in any meaningful way, because the customers cannot under any circumstances choose to refuse.

I refer to such businesses as "pay me or die' deals.

If I offer to rent you a room with a million dollars worth of equipment in it for 6 hours, along with the services of 5 or 6 $40 an hour and one $500 an hour professional people, would you consider $300,000.00 a reasonable fee?

If it was a recording studio, say, then no bloody way is the answer, but if it's an operating room, and you have cancer, then you will say yes before you even realize that it represents the whole proceeds of a productive worker's life, his children's hope for education, the grandparents inheritance and any other thing at all.

Medical care is delivered the way it is because the American system is private and can charge whatever the market can raise, and the poor are visibly allowed to die on park benches. And the American system makes certain parties, specialists, surgeons, insurance companies, HMOs and the like, rich beyond the dreams of avarice.

It's not possible that that much money can fail to influence the kind of government we have had around here lately. To try to force the weird value system that produces it on the rest of the world.

I mean it's the perfect offer you can't refuse, isn't it?

Pay me or die.

Excellent article, Will

... and some good comments have followed. Particularly appreciate Birch's balanced thoughts.

Just a thought about "nationalizing" our health care system. Already standards are not universal - if you live outside a major urban centre, your standard of care is much less, and heaven help you if you live up north where outpost nurses are your only source of emergency help. Any attempt to "nationalize" standards would immediately lower standards for all urban centres in favour of the hinterlands.

...which isn't such a bad idea, actually, just very difficult to do; and the system has enough challenges as it is.

Losing control of the system

"Closer to Home" was a NDP program designed to make hospital boards more accountable to the patients that lived in their own community. The more hospitals began so specialize (as businesses do) the more general types of medicine were being left behind, especially as 'business-case' departments at various hospitals began to recommend what types of care the facility should offer in order to stay within the budget.

That's when most facilities stopped doing ortho care and waiting lists for hip and joint surgeries went through the roof.

SO the NDP, and later the Liberals, began to alter hospital funding to force them to extend their services, even while they allowed each to specialize in some facet of health care such as breast health, cardiac care or brain surgery. It made things a bit better, but we still have a long way to go.

But that's further balkanized the system in some respects in that the government now refuses to take responsibility for funding capital projects or equipment at any facilities. If it's a new building you want, come up with a P-3 proposal. If it's equipment you want, come up with donations.

Which makes Children's hospital one of the best funded places around for capital projects and equipment. They've so much money coming out of their ears they don't know what to do with it all. There's still spare equipment sitting downstairs that hasn't been put to use yet in the critical care wards, and a whole new hospital is planned even though the existing one is only 28 years old! There have been all kinds of rationalizations for why this needs to be the way it is, but in truth, the charitable funding of this organization is skewing health care priorities badly in a direction it doesn't need to go. Badly-needed health care dollars will be spent on a hospital that isn't needed, only because it's easy and sexy to raise money for kids.

I shouldn't just pick on Children's but it's the most successful at this formula. Yet, all hospitals do it to some extent.

Health and Life.

Money can't buy you life. That's the most important thing.

BC residents currently have the longest life expectancy in Canada.

http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/health26-eng.htm

Health Care Spending

Contrary to media reports health care spending has not gone up. The continuous mantra of increased health costs is a lie to justify the privatization of our system. But if we wish to trim expenditures we need only look at the many "managers" floating around in our acute care settings to see where the waste lies. Lets go back to the way hospitals were run in the past with head nurses managing wards, it was efficient and cost effective. Lets get rid of the corporate model that has invaded and have only those involved in direct patient care running the system and millions will be saved as the suits walking the corridors of our health care facilities disappear.

Oh the irony.

The only people who tell you that throwing money at a problem won't solve the problem are those who took money away to create the problem in the first place.

I sent a letter to the Health Minister

(Kevin Falcon at the time) complaining about the long wait for knee surgery. The response from his office? Find a doctor with a shorter waiting list even if he/she is in another part of the province.

Seriously?

I hurt my knee in March of last year. Paid for the MRI myself (which I really can't afford) because the waiting list was it was 14 months. Put on a surgical waiting list.
Because I could barely walk, and am normally very active, my doctor brought me in on a cancellation. November. Not bad.

However, that arthroscope indicated I actually need a partial knee replacement. So now I wait again. For another 6 to 8 months. And am unable to do much as I have a brace on 24/7.

My surgeon is newer to the area and doesn't have a pathetically long waiting list. I'm actually lucky.

On another note, my spouse was in the hospital 4 times last winter with a life threatening heart condition. The cardiologist finally admitted him, to the critical care unit, for two weeks so he could have his tests done in a timely fashion. If he hadn't been admitted he would have waited, yup, you guessed it, for months for MRI's, CT's, and angioplasty.

And the mush he was given to eat was trucked in from Calgary. It was so bad I brought in food for him every day.

Prisoners are treated better.

Sickening.

Spending LESS is GOOD! Not Only ..

...are the BC Liberals the best managers and saving us all money but we are the healthiest population in the country!

"BC – The Healthiest Province in Canada Along With the Lowest Obesity Rates
Posted in Obesity on July 8th, 2010
B.C Ranks High in Healthy Living

Link to Article | http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_cariboo/williamslaketribune/news/96635179.html

FRIDAY, June 18th 2010 (Williams Lake Tribune) – The Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) released Tuesday by Statistics Canada shows that B.C. continues to lead or be highly ranked in many healthy living categories compared to other jurisdictions.

“This is the second time in a month that a national health report has recognized B.C.’s leadership in healthy living, supported by statistics that show we are truly the healthiest population in Canada,” says Healthy Living and Sport Minister Ida Chong says, adding that the latest data from the survey shows that British Columbians are the most physically active, have the lowest smoking rate and self-reported obesity rates and are the second-highest consumers of fruits and vegetables in Canada.

The 2009 Canadian Community Health Survey shows that:

• B.C. has the lowest smoking rate in Canada at 16 per cent.

• British Columbians rank second in Canada for fruit and vegetable consumption (five or more servings per day) at 45.7 per cent.

• British Columbians (ages 12 and over) have the highest physical activity rates in Canada at 60.3 per cent.

• British Columbians have the lowest self-reported obesity rates in Canada at 45.1 per cent.

• B.C. ranked second among provinces for functional health at 82.7 per cent. Functional health measures eight categories, including hearing, vision, communicating, mobility, dexterity, pain, cognition and emotion.

The Canadian Community Health Survey results for B.C. build on the latest Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) report released in May 2010 that showed B.C. has the lowest heart-attack rate in Canada, along with the lowest self-reported conditions, including high blood pressure, asthma and obesity among the provinces.

ActNow BC is the province’s healthy-living program that encourages British Columbians to eat healthy foods, increase physical activity, eliminate tobacco use and make healthy choices during pregnancy. It’s been recognized nationally by the Health Council of Canada, and recently internationally by the World Health Organization for being a model for health promotion.

The Canadian Community Health Survey began in 2000 with its main goal being the focus of population-level information on health determinants, health status and health-system utilization."

Also:
http://www.besthealthmag.ca/get-healthy/health/canadas-healthiest-cities-2009

It's a no brainer

Will McMartin is much more persuasive with his facts than realisticman.