Thanks to the province’s physicians winning a big pay raise from an arbitration decision last week, the cost of doctors’ services in Ontario is going up sharply, by just under 10 per cent in one year. The deal will cost taxpayers about $1.6 billion a year. Good news for doctors, but the benefit for patients is a little more difficult to identify.

Arbitrator William Kaplan’s decision awards doctors 6.95 per cent to make up for past inflation, plus a three-per-cent increase for this year. Some of that money will be targeted to specific areas of health care, but the details haven’t been worked out yet. The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) and the provincial government are still negotiating the final three years of what will be a four-year deal.