Report calls for better healthcare in 2016
Posted January 20, 2016 10:04 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Do you find yourself frustrated by the kind of healthcare you get considering all the money you pay in taxes? A new report is calling for some specific priorities to be set for 2016.
The independent, not-for-profit C.D. Howe Institute says there isn’t high-quality care for the money that’s spent.
Senior Policy Analyst Colin Busby wants to see policies that will increase value for money and says one example is not paying doctors on a fee-for-service basis.
“What paying them on a sort of roster basis would do is it would align incentives with the outcomes we want, so it would give family doctors a greater incentive to keep patients healthy and add more patients to their rosters.”
Among other suggestions for change: addressing coverage gaps, specifically for drugs, mental health and continuing care.
Busby adds other countries make sure there is enough money for those things by not covering 100 per cent of hospital and doctors’ costs publicly.
“Pay a smaller share, say, 80/20 or 90/10 in terms of 80 per cent being the public contribution, 20 per cent private, and then you’re using those resources and redistributing them over towards drugs and continuing care and mental health, where there are major gaps.”
The institute claims vested interests get in the way of making change in the country.
