Canada ranked 8th among 11 developed countries in seniors' care. How can we improve?
CTV
A new study from the C.D. Howe Institute compares seniors’ care in Canada to that of other wealthy nations, providing insights into its relative performance and areas for improvement.
As Canada’s population ages at a rapid rate, a new study from the C.D. Howe Institute suggests the country can do more to improve access to seniors’ care and overall equity in the health system.
Released Thursday, the study compares the performance of seniors’ care in Canada and its provinces to that of other wealthy nations using data from the Commonwealth Fund, a U.S.-based foundation dedicated to improving health-care systems, and identifies areas for improvement.
The foundation’s 2021 International Health Policy Survey of Older Adults survey focused on a random sample of seniors aged 65 and older in 11 developed countries and asked about their experiences, interactions and perceptions of the health-care system and health providers.
Among the countries surveyed, Canada ranked eighth in seniors’ care — ahead only of France, the U.K. and Sweden.
Drawing from the survey’s data, the C.D. Howe Institute study applies a magnifying lens to seniors’ care in Canada’s provinces, because, as study co-author Rosalie Wyonch explained in an interview with CTVNews.ca, “we're really 13 health-care systems, not one.”
The study found that most provinces exceed the international average in care process, which includes factors such as co-ordination across health providers and patient engagement, but fall below average on equity and access to care, which includes factors such as wait times.
It also notes that access to medical care is an obstacle for low-income seniors, noting in the study that 15 per cent of seniors in Canada are not visiting a dentist and eight percent are not receiving the home care they need because they can’t afford it.
