Munificent Health Salaries
Canada has a nation-wide problem, little doubt about that. An increasing burden on all provincial budgets goes toward supporting the health-care system. The federal government has assured the provinces that the current level of 6% growth in federal funding will continue for the next few years, after which sensible austerity measures will kick in.
The funding percentage increase will be linked to the country's prosperity - or lack of it, while the federal government has promised that the yearly increase will never be less than 3%.
Maintenance and administration of the health care system is a provincial responsibility and the provinces are jealous of their administrative autonomy in such areas as health and education. They tell the federal government "just send money, thank you kindly", and they'll look after the rest.
To date, they haven't done a truly outstanding job of that responsibility, and the cost of health care is steadily rising. It now represents, in Ontario, roughly 44% of the budget, and increasing.
Causing most of the provincial premiers to scream bloody murder at the unjustness of the federal government's decision - without provincial consultation. Consultation would have resulted in a roadblock, so the federal government decided it would do what it was elected to do - make its own decisions and advise the provinces accordingly.
Encouraging them to become more enterprising in the allocation of somewhat future scarcer funds; a reasonable enough expectation.
The bulk of the cost of the health care system comes down, understandably enough, to salaries; most of the infrastructure cost has already been borne, and it is maintenance and equipment that takes up huge dollars after salaries. Medical professionals earn a hefty salary, and they deserve to.
What they earn far outdistances what the majority of Canadian workers can ever hope to bring home. And hospital administrators are at the top echelon of the overpaid CEO scale of remuneration.
The suggestion has been made that the chief executive officers of the 154 hospitals in Ontario alone, might consider a limit on their compensation; the high-end earners come in at $745,000 and $612,000 annually, for example. The president of the Ontario Hospital Association claims that hospital executives earn their remuneration, and to offer them less would be incentive for them to leave.
If the exorbitant pay is all that motivates them perhaps they should.
A more reasonable salary for such top earners would help in some fairly interesting ways, freeing up some money to hire the medical specialists now graduating from the province's medical schools who are unable to find placements for themselves, despite their eagerness to work in the health care system, and despite that their expertise is needed, because hospitals haven't the extra cash in the system to place them on staff.
The funding percentage increase will be linked to the country's prosperity - or lack of it, while the federal government has promised that the yearly increase will never be less than 3%.
Maintenance and administration of the health care system is a provincial responsibility and the provinces are jealous of their administrative autonomy in such areas as health and education. They tell the federal government "just send money, thank you kindly", and they'll look after the rest.
To date, they haven't done a truly outstanding job of that responsibility, and the cost of health care is steadily rising. It now represents, in Ontario, roughly 44% of the budget, and increasing.
Causing most of the provincial premiers to scream bloody murder at the unjustness of the federal government's decision - without provincial consultation. Consultation would have resulted in a roadblock, so the federal government decided it would do what it was elected to do - make its own decisions and advise the provinces accordingly.
Encouraging them to become more enterprising in the allocation of somewhat future scarcer funds; a reasonable enough expectation.
The bulk of the cost of the health care system comes down, understandably enough, to salaries; most of the infrastructure cost has already been borne, and it is maintenance and equipment that takes up huge dollars after salaries. Medical professionals earn a hefty salary, and they deserve to.
What they earn far outdistances what the majority of Canadian workers can ever hope to bring home. And hospital administrators are at the top echelon of the overpaid CEO scale of remuneration.
The suggestion has been made that the chief executive officers of the 154 hospitals in Ontario alone, might consider a limit on their compensation; the high-end earners come in at $745,000 and $612,000 annually, for example. The president of the Ontario Hospital Association claims that hospital executives earn their remuneration, and to offer them less would be incentive for them to leave.
If the exorbitant pay is all that motivates them perhaps they should.
A more reasonable salary for such top earners would help in some fairly interesting ways, freeing up some money to hire the medical specialists now graduating from the province's medical schools who are unable to find placements for themselves, despite their eagerness to work in the health care system, and despite that their expertise is needed, because hospitals haven't the extra cash in the system to place them on staff.
posted by Pieface | 6:45 PM
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