Saskatchewan NDP leader Ryan Meili, along with MLA Vicki Mowat, were in North Battleford recently and sat down with the News-Optimist.
Meili is a physician and has written books relating to health.
Rising health care costs are due to a number of factors, Meili said.
Health spending constitutes $5.77 billion in the 2018-19 provincial budget, with $3.5 billion going to the Saskatchewan Health Authority. Health spending consists of 39 per cent of the budget’s expenses, and costs have increased with consistency over the past 11 years.
A major health care cost to private and government bank accounts is prescription drugs.
Meili said Canada is the only OECD country that has medicare but without universal coverage of prescription drugs. Meili said drugs are “the fastest growing cost in our health care system and has been for many years.”
Other factors increasing health care costs include imaging and the use of technology, and human resources costs, “how much we’re paying people to provide the services,” Meili said.
Scott Livingstone of the SHA said in April staff wages and benefits consist of more than 70 per cent of the SHA’s budget.
Meili said an approach to health care he finds interesting is the Choosing Wisely approach. Choosing Wisely Canada describes itself as a “campaign to help clinicians and patients engage in conversations about unnecessary tests, treatments and procedures.”
“There’s a lot of things ... being done because they’re new and expensive,” Meili said, “but the evidence doesn’t actually support them as the best choice.”
“As a result, we’re doing lots of surgeries, prescribing lots of drugs and doing lots of imaging that doesn’t actually improve health outcomes.”
Meili said the Choosing Wisely approach looks to find “the most cost-effective, outcome effective choice” available.
A universal pharmacare approach could drive down costs, Meili said, while improving outcomes.
