Health-care spending to reach $5,170 per person

Updated Thu. Nov. 13 2008 12:16 PM ET

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Canada’s health-care spending will continue to outpace inflation this year, reaching $171.9 billion or $5,170 per person, a new study predicts.

Spending is forecast to be $10.3 billion more than the estimated expenditure for 2007, or a 3.4 per cent increase after adjusting for inflation and population growth.

That’s similar to growth rates of 2.8 per cent last year (estimated), 3.7 in 2006 and 2.8 in 2005, says the annual study by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

It predicts health expenditures will be 10.7 per cent of the gross domestic product this year, their highest share ever.

“Health-care spending is expected to grow faster than Canada’s economy, outpacing inflation and population growth,” said Glenda Yeates, president and CEO of the health-information group.

“In the context of recent changes in the economy, it is important to keep monitoring these trends in order to better understand how our dollars are being spent and how we compare with other countries.”

But the good news is that the growth has been steady for almost 10 years now, enabling governments to plan and adjust accordingly, says the group’s Francine Anne Roy.

“What will be interesting for us is to see what will be the impact of any change in the economy … on decision-making around the health-care system,” said Roy, a director.

Hospitals still make up the largest component of Canada’s health-care spending but their share is steadily declining, says the group, created by the federal, provincial and territorial governments to monitor industry trends.

Hospitals are expected to account for 28 per cent, or $48.1 billion, of total health-care spending this year, down from 30.7 per cent in 1998 and 44.7 per cent in 1975.

Spending on both prescribed and non-prescribed drugs will account for 17.4 per cent of health-care spending, or $29.8 billion, the study predicts. That’s up from 15 per cent a decade ago and 8.8 per cent in 1975.

The study says payments to physicians will account for about 13.4 per cent of total spending in 2008, or $23 billion. That share has remained relatively stable since 1999.

At 8.3 per cent, spending on drugs is expected to grow faster than spending on hospitals (5.8 per cent) or physicians (6.2) this year.

Per-capita health spending is predicted to be highest in Alberta and Manitoba, at $5,730 and $5,555, respectively, and lowest in Quebec ($4,653) and British Columbia ($5,093).

Total provincial health expenditures as a percentage of provincial GDP will this year range from 6.9 per cent in Alberta and 8.8 per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador to 14.6 per cent in Nova Scotia and 15.3 per cent in Prince Edward Island.

In 2006, the latest year available for age-specific data, per-capita health-care spending by provincial and territorial governments was highest for infants younger than one ($7,891) and people 65 and older ($9,967).

Health-care spending on Canadians between the ages of one and 64 averaged $1,832 per person.

For those age 65 to 69, the average per-capita spending was $5,369 in 2006. For those age 85 to 89, per person spending reached an average of $21,209.

Canadians age 65 and older accounted for about 44 per cent of health-care spending by provincial and territorial governments in 2006, about the same as it’s been since age-specific data was first recorded in 1998.

Among 25 countries that have comparable accounting systems in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2006, per-capita spending on health care remained highest in the United States at US$6,714.

That’s followed by Norway (US$4,520), Switzerland (US$4,311) and Luxembourg (US$4,303). Canada was in the top fifth of countries in per-capita spending on health, spending US$3,678 per person, in the same range as France, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria.

The lowest per-capita health-care spending was in Turkey (US$591) and Mexico (US$794).

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081113/healthcare_inflation_081113/20081113?hub=Canada

Immediate Release: City of Toronto to Ban Bottled Water

The motion was brought forward by “right-of-centre” City Councillor Mike Del Grande, not by any of Mayor Miller’s traditional allies – Councillor Del Grande should be recognized by his efforts.

I wrote him a couple of letters, then Joe from the Polaris Institute followed up with pressure.

————————————————————————
THE ORIGINAL MOTION

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2008/ex/agendas/2008-11-10-ex26-ar.pdf

EX26.39: ACTION
Requesting a Ban of Water Bottle Sales on City Property
(September 30, 2008) Member Motion from Councillor Del Grande, seconded by Councillor Di Giorgio

Recommendations
1. That the City of Toronto ban water bottle sales on City Property.
2. That the City undertake, with Parks and Recreation, Facility Services and Waste/Water Divisions, to provide improvements and availability of tap water.
3. That the ban occur where the City improves its tap water availability.

Summary
The City is trying to be a leader in the green movement. Bottled water is seen as an unnecessary product that produces a significant amount of waste. The City has already passed a motion that bottled water should not be used in Council and Committee meetings, as well as other City meetings. Toronto’s Municipal water system is constantly inspected and tested and the water is of high quality, which means there is no need to waste resources shipping bottles to consumers in
Toronto. London, Ontario is moving in this direction as well as other Cities like, Kitchener, Charlottetown, St. John’s, Vancouver, Nelson, B.C., as well as the Ottawa and Toronto Public School Boards.

Background Information
Requesting a Ban of Water Bottle Sales on City Property
(http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2008/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-16676.pdf)

————————————————————————
THE RESULT

From: joecressy@polarisinstitute.org
To: polaris@polarisinstitute.org
Subject: Immediate Release: City of Toronto to Ban Bottled Water
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:44:46 -0500

For Immediate Release
November 13, 2008

The City of Toronto moves one step closer to kicking bottled water out of municipal buildings

Toronto – Toronto’s Public Works and Infrastructure Committee recommended yesterday that City Council immediately ban the sale and distribution of bottled water at Civic Centre’s and implement a program that bans the sale and distribution of bottled water at all remaining City facilities by 2011. The committee also recommended the City improve access to tap water in all city facilities.

“We laud the Committee for taking a strong political stance in favour of municipally delivered tap water,” stated Polaris Institute Director Tony Clarke. “If the City Council approves the committee’s recommendation, Toronto will become the biggest city in the world to implement such a far reaching policy to control this wasteful product,” continued Clarke.

In Canada, municipal water systems are among the safest and strongest in the world. Meanwhile bottled water costs more, is less regulated, consumes more energy and releases more harmful toxics into the environment than tap water.

About the Polaris Institute (www.insidethebottle.org): The Polaris Institute is a Canadian based organization designed to enable citizens to work for democratic social change.
-30-

For more information please contact:
Joe Cressy, Polaris Institute, (613) 769-7118, joecressy@polarisinstitute.org

The TDL Group Corp.
From: lisa@timhortons.com
You may not know this sender.Mark as safe|Mark as unsafe
Sent: November 11, 2008 4:26:12 PM
To: karen_o18@msn.com

Dear Ms. Cao,

Thank you for your comments and we do understand your concerns. Ourwaste reduction goals are focussed on the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Tosupport those goals we have increased our efforts around customer awarenessabout the value of using our china mugs when dining in (and other reusablechinaware and cutlery as this reduces packaging at the source) and aboutthe 10 cent discount on all travel mug fills (again, reduces packaging atthe source). We hope you take advantage of these Reduce and Reuse optionswhen visiting our stores.

To improve our in-store recycling programs we have worked with the wastemanagement industry, and municipalities, to better understand theopportunities and challenges that exist. During this process we learnedthat the current paper coffee cup is recyclable and compostable, and thecurrent plastic lid is also recyclable, but not all communities have theequipment, capability, or end markets to support the recycling programsthat we want to do. So what is recyclable in one community may not berecyclable in another and we cannot change our packaging for everycommunity.

According to our understanding, the City of Toronto has fully acknowledgedthat the paper cup on its own is recyclable and the plastic lid on its ownis recyclable but they don’t want to accept the cup into their residentialblue box program because they don’t believe that the lid will be removedfrom the cup before it is placed in the blue box. Therefore the City ofToronto has declared the paper coffee cup as not compatible with their bluebox system and therefore ‘not recyclable’ (due to the fear that the plasticlid will not be removed and not because of how the cup is made).

At this time we have 20 locations in Toronto where we have in-storerecycling units where we can accept the paper coffee cup for recycling. Wehave worked with a Toronto company, Turtle Island, on this proactiveenhanced recycling program since April and we will be rolling this cuprecycling program out to more Toronto stores in the near future. We havelead this initiative and are happy to be able to provide a recycling optionfor the paper cup for our customers that choose to use one.

In addition, we have checked with the industry that makes cups and lids andthey have confirmed to us that no paper coffee cup lid currently exist andthey are not sure how they could achieve a safe (does not leak) andfunctional (can drink through safely) paper lid. We will continue to lookfor solutions but in the mean time we do not believe that changing the cup,which is currently being recycled in other communities, is the answer.

Kind Regards,
Lisa

Operations Services
The TDL Group Corp.

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