Value-Based Procurement: The New Healthcare Imperative

Despite heroic efforts to control healthcare costs, Canada is still among the countries with the highest healthcare expenditures. In 2013, Canada spent 10.2% of its GDP on healthcare, which was above the average for its peer OECD countries. Yet, the quality of healthcare services does not always match this level of investment. There are still great variations in healthcare quality across the country and, most importantly, Canada’s performance is weak on key indicators when compared with its peer countries. For example, as shown in the Conference Board of Canada’s latest How Canada Performs report card, Canada obtained “C”s for mortality due to cancer, mortality due to diabetes, mortality due to musculoskeletal diseases, and infant mortality. Canada’s health performance has dropped to 10th place from a much more enviable 5th place in the 1990s out of 17 peer countries.