{"id":6145,"date":"2018-03-28T17:07:01","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T21:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=6145"},"modified":"2020-05-15T15:15:09","modified_gmt":"2020-05-15T19:15:09","slug":"release-good-news-budget-but-most-health-care-funding-is-back-end-loaded-to-years-away-coalition-concerned-about-one-year-bump-up-followed-by-austerity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/release-good-news-budget-but-most-health-care-funding-is-back-end-loaded-to-years-away-coalition-concerned-about-one-year-bump-up-followed-by-austerity\/","title":{"rendered":"RELEASE: <\/FONT>Good news budget but most health care funding is back-end loaded to years away: Coalition concerned about one-year bump up followed by austerity"},"content":{"rendered":"

(March 28, 2018)<\/p>\n

TORONTO –\u00a0Emerging from the budget lock up this afternoon, Ontario Health Coalition spokespeople were positive but cautious about the health care funding announcements.<\/p>\n

Overall, the budget plans a one-year bump up in funding and several high-profile public service funding and program announcements. But the budget also contains a number of tax cuts, including corporate and upper income tax cuts. To pay for the one-year increase and the new services, the government is planning to hold overall public spending to below population growth and inflation needs for 7 years starting the year after the election.<\/p>\n

Hospitals<\/u><\/p>\n

Hospitals will receive one year of significant bump up. The budget\u2019s 4.6% increase is less than we are asking for (5.3%) but is a significant improvement. However, it comes after 10 consecutive years of real-dollar cuts to hospitals\u2019 global budgets which ended in 2016 and is not enough to reverse a decade of cuts, on top of previous decades of hospital cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are concerned because the 2017 budget planned to drop hospital funding increases the year after the election. We could not find anything in this year\u2019s budget that refers to funding going forward. A short-term bump-up leading into an election followed by a return to budget constraints will not get people off of the stretchers in hallways, lounges and bathrooms, will not open closed ORs, get patients in for their surgeries on time, or get ambulances back on the street,\u201d said\u00a0 Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition.<\/p>\n

Long-Term Care<\/u><\/p>\n

The budget re-announces previously promised 30,000 new long term care spaces over 10-years. But there are currently 34,000 people on the wait list (as at December 2017) and the new beds are back-end loaded. Five thousand are to be built within four years after the election and the remaining 25,000 will not be until the six years thereafter.<\/p>\n

Similarly, long-term care funding is back-end loaded. The sector will receive a 2 per cent increase this year as it has each year for approximately a decade. In addition, the budget includes $300 million over 3-years for improved staffing, back-end loaded with $50 million in the first year, then the remaining 40 per cent followed by the final 60 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe long-term care announcements do not address the current backlog of tens of thousands waiting,\u201d said Sara Labelle, board member of the Ontario Health Coalition. \u201cAll of the funding and infrastructure announcements are back-end loaded. Meanwhile we have population growth and aging. The plan needs to be moved up to address the real suffering of people who cannot access long-term care and whose care is insufficient in long-term care homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quick Budget Overview<\/u><\/p>\n