Health Care in Canada, 2011

January 2, 2012 - Today we received Health Care in Canada, 2011: A Focus on Seniors and Aging from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). The report considers the health status of Canadians and recognizes the growing need to provide more ongoing support for people with chronic conditions. It declares that 48% of people aged 45-64 and 76% of people over 65 reported at least one chronic condition. “With increasing age the likelihood of having at least one chronic condition also increased” (19).

Access to health care was more closely correlated to the number of chronic conditions that people have than to age. And self-reported poor health status was similarly correlated with the number of chronic conditions. In 2009, 74% of seniors with only one chronic condition reported good self-perceived health, compared with only 27% of those with four or more” (19).

The report concludes that “Preventing, delaying or reducing the severity of chronic conditions may not only enhance quality of life as people age, but likely also help ease demand on limited health care resources” (20).

A health care system focused on acute episodes is not the right kind of system to care for a population that is suffering from long-term chronic conditions. For one thing, it is clear that patients must participate in their care far more than they do in such a system. We believe that they must become active participants not only in their actual care, but also in redesigning services to deal more effectively with chronic conditions, and in governing a system that responds more appropriately to the actual morbidity of the population.

The report can be downloaded here. There is a related report on Health Care Cost Drivers that supplements its annual report and can also be downloaded from the site as well.