Summaries
from completed regional forums are available on the website
for the Conversation on Health. They are categorized
as either "courtyard" (responses to the Ministry's
conversation starters) or "open forum" (topics
initiated by the participants). For anyone who has ever
attended a conference structured with breakout groups and
flipcharts, the pdf versions of the flipcharts from the
first six regional forums for the Conversation look like
the usual nightmare of scribbling that is hard to make coherent.
That is not to criticize hundreds of people who participated,
or dozens of people who acted as scribes, but it is the
typical result of trying to make sense of many people discussing
dozens of complex topics in a very constrained timeframe.
If there
is any consistent message that one can get by sifting through
the pdf tables of discussions, it is a rejection of the
message driven by the Campbell government that Medicare
as we know it is not sustainable. As noted in the courtyard
discussion held in Victoria on pressures: "Pressures
are being inflated and manipulated for political reasons."
The
conversation starter on "Pressures on the Health Care
System" reported that "Health care is the largest
and fastest growing part of the overall provincial budget.
Health expenditures across government were $9.5 billion
in 2000, and have increased to $12.8 billion this year",
an increase of 35%. How do we know whether that is a lot
or a little? Over a six year period, that is an annual rate
of increase of 5.1%. Nominal
gross domestic product (real growth plus inflation)
for BC grew by 8.1% in 2004 and 7.2% in 2005. Ministry of
Finance budget documents reported that, when the figures
are in later this year, they are expected to show 5.9% nominal
GDP growth for 2006. From those figures, it looks like public
health spending is shrinking as a proportion of the economy.
Revenue from Medical Service Plan Premiums increased from
$894 million in fiscal year 2000-2001 to $1.484 billion
in fiscal year 2006-07, an increase of 66%. Revenue from
health and social transfers from the Federal Government
has increased from $2.619 billion in 2000-2001 to $4.476
billion in 2006-07, an increase of 71%. If people would
die sooner, the so called "pressures" would disappear.
Connect the admitting room to the morgue and eliminate what's
in between seems to be a subtitle for the health cost clock.
Later
this year the Campbell government will take the numerous
flipcharts from the public forums and announce what it learned,
but before that happens you can try to make sense out of
the tabulated summaries. Across the province citizens chosen
to participate in the forums have said that they value public
Medicare and that they don't believe the Campbell government's
spin on sustainability.
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