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6 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanvillc. October 5,1983 Section Two Courtice South Students in Harrier Meet Harsh Facts About Soaring Health-Care Costs These representatives of the Courtice South Public School took part in the recent harrier cross country meet held by Darlington schools at Enniskillen. Enniskillen. The front row, from left, includes: Roxanne Moncrieff, Kim McIntyre, Roy MacDonald, Connie Groeneveld, Lorinda Brown. The back row, from left, includes Jeanette Nettinga, Tracy Solomon, Melanie Wease, Jason Alexander, Andrew Kamondy, Allan Thompson. With the students are the teachers in charge of the harrier team. They are Mrs. Rice (right) and Mrs. Taylor. United Way Director Speaks at Rotary Rotarians learned about the objectives of the United Way 1983 fund-raising fund-raising drive last week when Bob MacFarlane, executive director of the organization, organization, addressed the club. Mr. Macfarlane (right) is shown here with Earl Wolff, a member of the United Way Board of Directors and member of the Bowmanville Rotary Club. Mr. Wolff introduced the guest speaker to the club last Thursday. Mr. MacFarlane described United Way as a group of people helping people. He added that the organization assists 23 agencies in the Town of Newcastle alone and he urged the Bowmanville business community to support the 1983 campaign which began this week. The United Way Goal totals $1,595,000. Poes Tour Advertising EeaVe You Feeling Deserted? Ever had a big sale -- and nobody came. Or, at least, not enough people . . . Could be your advertising sales message just isn't getting across. Newspaper advertising puts you in touch with the market you want to reach. It's the most viable force in the marketplace today. Use it. And make all your sales happy, successful events. Call 623-3303 and ask for Display Advertising The Canadian Statesman 62 King Street West Bowmanville Regional Council Briefs Regional council is recommending recommending that the Durham logo be changed to include the word "Region" below the word "Durham" in new printed material such as.brochures and letterheads. letterheads. ... This move was approved by the regional council last week in order to reinforce the concept of the Durham Region and eliminate confusion confusion with the Town of Durham. In addition, regional council has asked that municipalities be encouraged encouraged to identify their relationship relationship with the region wherever possible. Regional council has suggested that this connection connection with Durham be included included on letterhead and printed material produced at the area municipality level. The recommendation came from Durham's management management committee on the advice of Economic Development Development Commissioner Gerard Gervais. Regional council has granted a $31,000 increase in its share of the 1983 budget of the Children's Aid Society. Council has agreed to increase increase its portion of the budget, provided that the Province of Ontario agrees to fund its share of the Society's Society's gross deficit. The agency has cited increased increased admissions of children children and an increased workload as reasons for the deficit. A proposed raise in the fees charged at regional homes for the aged has been delayed for further study. Regional council had been asked to increase the rate charged to full paying residents receiving intermediate intermediate care at all regional homes for the aged to $31 per day. That's an additional additional $1.60 per day, said Social Social Services Commissioner Doug Johns in a report to council. The recommendation was referred back to the committee committee after a citizen requested requested an opportunity to comment on the increase. <§5&®55& GAMER/V Bigger Pictures Plus Fast Accurate Service FREE! 5x7 Enlargement with every C41-110, 126-135 film processed. INSTANT PASSPORT PHOTOS OEHAWA CAMERA CENTRE UP 3SMAWA SHOPPING CENTRE lAciiowmiOM million million i:cr.Nmi:i By Mark Elliott Do we spend too much on health care - yes or no? The politicians are answering somewhere in the middle. Let's look at the various factors accounting for the costs of health care. The biggest biggest chunk - about 40 percent - is hospital costs. Doctors' billings billings account for about 20 percent, but for every dollar a doctor receives he or she directly accounts for another $3 or $4 in ordering services or tests for the patient. This is one reason why the fastest- rising costs are the hospital costs, which have been going up at 14 percent per year. General Inflation Sixty-three percent of the increase in health-care costs is due to an increase in the price per test ordered for patients. Of that rise, 54 percent percent is due to inflation and the rest is accounted for by the rise in medical inflation over the general inflation rate. Growth in population accounts for about seven percent of the increase. If you are over 65, on average average three and one-half times as much is spent on your health care as is spent for the rest of the population. As the percentage of people over 65 is now 11 percent and expected to go to 19 percent by the year 2000, the cost-escalation . potential is obvious. The health-care business does not operate in a free market. In a free market there are a large number of producers making a rather standard commodity, but in the medical system there are a few providers producing a wide variety of goods and services. In a free market, the consumer is well informed about tire product and suppliers; suppliers; in the medical system a patient can never be totally informed about the different diagnostic and treatment options. Profit is the ultimate regulator regulator in the free market, but there is certainly a lot more than money's motivation to make a person study an average average of nine years (13 for a specialty) to become a doctor and work an average of 70 hours a week. In the free market the consumer gets what he pays for,- but with medical insurance care is essentially regarded as free and open for abuse. What can be done to decrease decrease these costs? It's worthwhile worthwhile to view the system from the point of view of the consumer consumer (patient), producer (medical personnel) and the environment 11 'they both operate in. The consumer in this country country is not financially responsible responsible for any of these costs other than paying the premium premium for medical insurance (which does not come close to covering costs). However, to suggest that he or she should pay even a small amount extra is political suicide. The consumer has hyped-up needs, generated especially by the media, and the attitude is one of ever-increasing expectation. expectation. A little-known fact among consumers is that medical care ranks fifth behind heredity, heredity, environment, nutrition and lifestyle in prolonging life. The money spent for a single alcohol-induced liver failure or cigarette-induced respiratoryfailure respiratoryfailure is simply astounding astounding when you consider the extensive stays in intensive care units, multiple blood transfusions and other aggressive aggressive medical and surgical therapy. It might be appropriate appropriate to give people such as this a certain number of credits in the medical system and once those have been expended expended then only minimal care will be given - unless the patient is willing to pay extra, New services, new diagnos tic procedures and essentially unlimited access to laboratory tests result in a system crying to be abused. This is probably the reason that medical students and physicians are becoming less reliant on the five senses and more so on the expensive lab test. The physicians physicians who are regarded by the medical community as truly outstanding clinicians and tops in their field are uniform in one trait - they all use the laboratory to confirm what they already know after talking talking to, and examining a patient. Legal considerations, such as the threat of malpractice malpractice suits, dictate that a large number of tests be done on patients. Medical science has become very good at treating the symptoms of a particular disease, disease, but "cure" is becoming more and more a rarity in our world of chronic disease (cancer, arthritis, coronary artery disease). More money needs to be allocated to basic research and probably less so to certain applied research that merely proves the obvious. obvious. However, the payoffs for this are 30 or 40 years down the line - long after the government government of the day is out of office. Services Rendered There is almost no cost accountability in our hospital system. Hospitals are paid on a per patient basis and are given the same amount of money whether the patient occupying the bed requires expensive intensive care of minimal chronic care. The hospitals should be paid on the basis of services rendered. Labor costs, compared to 20 years ago when most hospital workers were grossly underpaid underpaid and a lot of care was provided by intern doctors and nursing students for free, are huge. Yet, to trim costs here will cause confrontations with unions. The administrative bureaucracy bureaucracy in our medical system is growing at a cancerous rate. The time wasted and extra Orono Artists Display Work at Showcase Co-op costs due to the inflexibility and lack of co-ordination are ever increasing. The management management of hospitals, at least, should be handed over to private private enterprise on a contractual contractual basis. There are only finite resources resources in this country. We must decide, for example, whether we want to allocate more or less to transportation, housing, pensions and other needs. And this same hard decision must be made with respect to health care. Financial Post Dr. Mark Elliott is a Vam couver physician and is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Carson Elliott, Bowmanville. Artists from Orono and area displayed their work to the public at the Orono Armouries recently recently during the first of a regular weekend exhibition exhibition and sale. The project is called the Orono Showcase Co-operative and it is operated by 18 members, including artists, antique dealers, An arts and craft cooperative cooperative owned by 18 artists and antique dealers of the Orono area opened Friday, Sept. 23 at the Orono Armories, just behind the village hall. The Orono Showcase Co-operative will be open Fridays, Saturdays Saturdays and Sundays throughout the year and offers a wide variety variety of art and collectibles. collectibles. Woodworking, needlework, painting, and antiques are just a few examples of the handicrafts available. "Today's a dream come true for many of us in this room," observed observed Ward Three Regional Regional • Councillor Diane Hamre, who opened the co-operative. co-operative. The co-operative was launched because a group of Orono area citizens wanted to give local artists a place where they could display display their talents. Councillor Hamre noted that artists took a chance on the project and so did businessmen of the Orono Downtown Business Improvement Area who offered support. support. Newcastle town council also backed the co-op. "The council lis-; tened to their story and said yes, we'll give it a chance," Councillor Hamre added. Ann Dreslinski, chairperson for the artists' artists' co-operative explained that plans for the project began at the end of last year. A government work program helped pro woodworkers, floral arrangers, and others. Some of the members on hand for last week's opening aie shown here with a few of the items on display. From left are Doris Roberts, a director of the co- operative, Ann Dreslinski, president, and Debbie Bourne, one of the co-op members. vide the resources to renovate the building. Offices and storage space formerly held by the hydro commission were re-painted, floors were re-finished, and the rooms were gradu ally transformed into a showcase for handicrafts. handicrafts. The larger room formerly formerly used as a garage will house future displays displays and exhibits, the chairman added. TELEPHONE 623-6555 JOHN MANUEL, C.G.A. Income Tax and Related Accounting Services 118 King St. E., Suite 2 Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 1N4 Pltch-m and Keep Canada Beautiful ■4M Are your hard-earned dollars going up in smoke? 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