The end of the second most expensive health care system in the world: some geographical implications

In Canada, there has been an increasingly, vociferous debate over the future of a health care system which is based on 5 principles: comprehensiveness; public administration; universality; portability; and accessibility. In part, this debate is a policy tug-of-war among provincial governments, special interest groups and the public who on one side want to maintain the principles of the health care system and on the other want to control costs within the system. The outcome of this policy tug-of-war is demonstrated through an analysis of the funding of health care in the province of Ontario, Canada in general, and the closure of hospital beds specifically. The analysis shows that in attempting to restructure the system, rationalization and growing spatial inequality are occurring simultaneously. The analysis calls into question the whole strategy of bed closures as a method of controlling health care costs. These conclusions have implications for other national health care systems where hospital bed closures have also been used as a strategy in controlling health care costs.