Bernard Kouchner, co-founder and former President of Doctors Without Borders/Médécins, delivered a keynote speech to begin Session I: Innovation in Health Care Delivery at the 8th Annual Ontario Economic Summit.

Dr. Kouchner opened with, “I am not an economist” but went on to state his optimism that the EuroZone crisis would be over soon. He saw the crisis as a chance rather than an obstacle; a political crisis rather than an economic one as countries share a common currency without a common institution.

Dr. Kouchner discussed the similarities between the French and the Canadian health care systems since both countries share the necessity of having public and private sectors, and providing subsidized care. Kouchner proposed his ideal health system, which takes funding out of salaries, as equitable to both the wealthy and poor because everyone would pay the same amount, relatively, and have the same access to the same quality of health care.

Dr. Kouchner also stated that in order to reduce health costs personnel must be cut and then hospitals would have to be closed.

Dr. Kouchner closed his speech by telling the crowd they are “lucky to live in Canada” and that he is lucky to live in France. When one considers that last year eight million people died of avoidable diseases such as pneumonia and polluted water, we are fortunate to not live in these conditions.

He said, “the best example of globalization is health globalization” and that Western countries should broaden their scope to include developing countries and share antiretroviral drugs to help cure common maladies.

Stan Glezer of Sanofi Canada and David West of Mercer (Canada) Limited offered their complimentary but different perspectives during the Matters of Opinion session, entitled, ‘The Role and Place of Prescription Drugs in the Provincial Health Care System’.

Stan Glezer, Vice-President of Medical Affairs at Sanofi Canada, stated that everyone who needs care, gets the best care available in a very timely manner. However, the cost of health care has been growing faster then the GDP for the last thirty-seven years and health care drugs are only 5.7 percent of the budget. Even if the cost of drugs is eliminated, 95% of the problem still exists.

He believes that we are not coming up with a solution because we are not asking the right questions. Mr. Glezer’s solution is to have less people that need health care, and to do this we need a healthier population. Thus, people must self manage their health and understand why they are doing it. He purports that we should not be looking at the health care system for savings, we should be looking for investments.

David West’s main concern surrounded the increasing cost of annually recurrent (biologic specialty) drugs, which is demonstrated through a project that he had worked on in 2009, predicting the costs of insurance for prescription drugs by 2019. He also discussed insurer drug pooling and integrating public and private plans.

Dr. David Gratzer and Dr. Michael Rachlis presented differing viewpoints on Ontario’s health system and the solutions for optimum health care delivery during a Matter of Opinion discussion panel, titled ‘Optimum Health Care Delivery’, at the 8th Annual Ontario Economic Summit.

That said, both speakers agreed that while our system is not perfect, it is still good and is not undergoing a period of crisis.

Dr. Gratzer points out that Canada has one of the most expensive universal health care systems in the world, but we are lagging behind in terms of delivery. He advocates looking to other countries for potential solutions to our problems, and gives the U.K., Switzerland and Sweden as examples where services are contracted out, private insurance is encouraged and patients pay user fees for medical services.

“We need to put things on the table and ask hard questions,” said Dr. Gratzer.

Dr. Rachlis argues that Canada’s lack of efficiency within the health care system is our greatest problem. He suggests that the solution is reorganizing our delivery system, starting with primary care providers. He purports Canada does not suffer from a lack of physicians or nurses, but their time is not being used efficiently, hence patients endure long wait times while their conditions deteriorate. He advocates for a system where patients are able to see a doctor within 24 hours and a specialist within seven days.

Both speakers agreed the focus should be on health versus health care, citing increase in obesity as a major concern. They also state that while there is room for improvement, Canada’s health care system is still the envy of countries across the globe.

Parag Khanna, Director at Global Governance Initiative and Senior Research Fellow for the New America Foundation, leads a thought-provoking discussion on current globalization trends, opportunities and challenges, during the second day of talks at the Ontario Economic Summit.

Khanna advises that “globalization cannot be turned on and off like a switch” and the world has entered the 5th stage of globalization, a phase where all regions of the world are participants. He foresees the emergence of Latin America, Africa and South-East Asia as players in a truly global economy. When addressing the current economic challenges, Khanna stresses the importance of investment in infrastructure and notes that most post-colonial countries have ignored the significance of improvement in this sector.

Khanna noted that the current G-8/G-20 problem-solving model is not working. Out of the top 100 economic entities, 40 are corporations, with Walmart and Exxon Mobil having a greater global impact than the economies of Bulgaria and Sri Lanka. Therefore, “who sits at the table depends on the issue. Walmart produces more greenhouse gases than Ireland.”

To overcome future threats, he encourages more resilience through the expansion of connections and compares this to building a spider web, where regions diminish their dependence on one particular industry or trading partner and therefore are more able to cope with threats such as natural disasters and economic instability.

President Bill Clinton opened the 8th Annual Ontario Economic Summit with advice for a prosperous future based on his tenure as 42nd President of the United States of America and his experiences as founder of the Clinton Global Initiative.

His address, entitled, “Embracing Our Common Humanity” highlighted the vital importance of cross-sectoral cooperation and he applauded the format of the summit: bringing together some of the world’s leading minds from the business, labour, academia, non-profit and aboriginal communities to envision a path forward for Ontario.

“You’ve got something precious here,” he said. “You have a socially and economically diverse province and you are dealing with complex challenges through forums like this Summit.”

This praise stemmed from his observation that progressive decision-making and economic prosperity grow from cooperative networks, like those created at the Ontario Economic Summit.

President Clinton modelled his remarks around the three key themes of the Summit: Health Care, Energy and Urban Regions, stating that if we “keep what is working about health care and improve delivery…increase energy efficiency while maintaining good economics…create prosperity centres that reach out to rural communities…the world will beat a path to your [Ontario's] door.”

During his speech, Clinton spoke on of the financial issues currently facing the world economy, and what he felt the U.S. should be focusing its efforts on to regain its financial foothold. He remarked that Canadians should want the U.S. to get back in the “future business” by dealing with their mortgage crisis, global warming and a dependence on foreign oil, stating simply, “If we get well again, we’ll buy more stuff from Canada.”

After his speech, moderator Steve Paiken from TVO’s The Agenda sat down with President Clinton, asking about current American politics and reflections on the President’s time in office. The question and answer session was certainly a crowd pleaser as President Clinton offered genuine, insightful and, at times, emotional responses.

This is President Clinton’s second appearance at the Ontario Economic Summit. He referenced his 2007 Summit debut, stating, ”I thought [the Summit] was a good idea then, I think it’s even a better idea now.”