THE SOLUTIONS:
Ontario’s doctors recognize the financial crisis that the Ontario Government is facing. However, they also know that Ontario’s population is growing, aging, and becoming increasingly complex to care for. In other words, the cost of Ontario’s healthcare is growing, but the Government’s ability to pay for it is shrinking.
We are on a sinking ship, headed for disaster. Desperate, short term reactions like cutting straight percentage points off the budget are not going to help in the long term because they will not fix the sinking ship.
Instead, we need Healthcare Reform:
- Doctors and the Government know there is waste and inefficiency within the healthcare system.
- With thoughtful health care reform, they could easily save even more money than the all of the cuts the Government has placed on physician services.
- Strategies such as Choosing Wisely or Less is More Medicine are examples of how we can save money and improve care at the same time!
- Dr. Scott Wooder has some excellent thoughts on healthcare reform here in his blog:
- Yet another possible solution could be to allow a “two-tier” system (a mixture of both private and public funding). European countries have this and their healthcare systems perform even better than our Canadian system.
Doctors and the Government have worked collaboratively in the past to find solutions for healthcare reform. The same can be done this time. Let us build on our successes.