OspreyBlogs » Blog Archive » The Mess We’re In: "The Mess We’re In
The Fraser Institute has just released a report that concludes “provincial government spending on health care will consume more than half of total revenue from all sources by the year 2020 and all revenue by 2050 in six out of 10 provinces.” The report, at http://www.fraserinstitute.ca, crunches StatsCan data and is the latest in a growing string of warnings that there soon won’t be enough money to pay for medicare.
Of course, being a think tank that leans to the right, the report offers a right-leaning prescriptive response to the problem – co-payments and allowing patients to pay for private (read better) health care as a couple of examples.
Were it that simple.
We are at the proverbial fork in the road. One way appears littered with unsustainable cost and crushing taxation. The other littered with the bodies of those who can’t afford the best care. Meanwhile, we clearly can’t afford to continue along the path we have been traveling. Over the next 15 years, there will be tremendous demand to spend more on education, seniors’ homes, nuclear and green power, drinking water systems and other services and there is a cumulative $100 billion backlog in this province of work to repair and replace roads, sewer and water lines, school buildings, hospitals and other infrastructure.
These figures should send a chill up your spine.
Some, in response to the report, are already calling for the feds to spend more money – effectively to dig us out of a hole by digging a deeper hole. Instead, hard questions need to be asked.
Are hospitals and doctors extorting money out of the province during negotiations? Are unions – for nurses, hospitals and other health care workers – "
