Only hope of future affordability is better utilization of health resources and teamwork among professionals

An article published this month in Canadian Chiropractor Magazine, co-authored by a health economist who had been instrumental in the evolution of Canada's Medicare system, argues that the only hope of future affordability is a better utilization of health resources and teamwork among professionals.

Written by Pran Manga, PhD, a health economist and Professor at the University of Ottawa, and Don Nixdorf, DC, the executive director the British Columbia Chiropractic Association, the article states:

"Governments can no longer simply throw more money in the health-care pot, and appease the monopolies . . . such . .  as medical doctors, dentists and pharmaceutical corporations. Up to now, governments have all but cowered before these groups, and thus were reluctant to make substantive health-care reforms - indeed the more significant the reforms, the more reluctant they have been - pushing marginally important reforms merely as window dressing."

The article focuses upon economic management that would minimize the administrative burden and ensure teamwork in treatment approaches, ensuring that professional boundaries disappear, and that the most appropriate health professional is assigned to treat each patient's condition.

They cite the enormous saving that could be achieved if Primary Care Centres included Doctors of Chiropractic along with other health professionals. The article referred to a study Dr. Manga had co-authored for the Government of Ontario in 1998, converting the dollars to 2011 prices, and stated that the primary use of Chiropractors in the treatment of musculoskeletal issues would save $4 billion per year.

Nixdorf and Manga also quoted a professional study in the United States in 2002 that determined that if a Doctor of Chiropractic is part of a typical family's health care plan - just one of the professionals available - the family's total annual health care cost drops from $8,100 per year to $4,400.

The Canadian Chiropractor Magazine article emphasized: "the enormous cost of health care in the United States and Canada constitutes an opportunity to identify strategies for real and immediate annual savings that contribute to economic recovery and sustainability." In the face of health costs that today are suffocating the financial resources of governments world-wide, every policy must be measured in terms of "effectiveness and outcomes" from the patient perspective.

Dr. Pran Manga became a public policy protégé of the Hon. T.C. "Tommy" Douglas during his student days and eventually became one of the most widely-published health economists in the world. Dr. Nixdorf was the co-author of the 2005 book Squandering Billions which analyzed health spending in Canada.