Suchergebnisse

Health care utilization by the elderly has increased during recent times. However, a number of investigators have indicated that this increase has had less to do with increasing numbers of elders than with increasing age-specific utilization rates for a variety of health services. 1985 and 1993 health data for British Columbia were used to examine changes in outpatient surgical utilization among the general population and changes in cataract surgical utilization among the elderly. Utilization increases in the older persons exceeded what would be expected on the basis of population increase. Furthermore, cataract surgery alone accounted for more than 29 percent of the entire utilization increase observed for outpatient surgery. Despite this increase, the average age at cataract surgery has not changed—seniors of all ages are much more likely to receive cataract surgery now than a decade ago. The authors' findings suggest that a part of this observed increase is due to operating on individuals at preoperative levels of better visual function.

Through Canadian and international perspectives, Bending the Cost Curve in Health Care explores the management of growing health costs in an extraordinarily complex arena. The book moves beyond previous debates, agreeing that while efficiencies and better value for money may yet be found, more fundamental reforms to the management and delivery of health services are essential prerequisites to bending the cost curve in the long run. While there is considerable controversy over direction and details of change, there also remains the challenge of getting agreement on the values or principles that would guide the reshaping of the policies, the structures, and the regulatory environment of health care in Canada. Leading experts from around the world representing a range of disciplines and professional backgrounds come together to organize and define the problems faced by policy-makers. Case studies from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Nordic countries, and industrialized Asian countries such as Taiwan offer useful reform experiences for provincial governments in Canada. Finally, common Canadian cost factors, such as pharmaceuticals and technology, and paying the health workforce, are explored. This book is the first volume in The Johnson-Shoyama Series on Public Policy, published by the University of Toronto Press in association with the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, an interdisciplinary centre for research, teaching, and executive training with campuses at the Universities of Regina and Saskatchewan