“Canadians get more money.” Rising health care costs outpace income growth 2024: study

Many Canadian families do not realize that most of their income will pay for public health services because of hidden costs and a complex system that deals with transfer payments.

According to a new study by the Fraser Institute, the average Canadian family of all sizes will pay 240% more for public health insurance this year than it did in 1997, an income of 141.1 % which increases the average household income earned during the same period. Health care costs are rising 1.7 times faster than the average wage.

By examining the amount each family pays at all levels of government for health care, the study’s authors found that for the six typical family types, Canadians would pay an estimated $4,908 to $17,713 in health care costs, depending on family type.

According to a study by the US health policy research organization KFF, the average annual cost of health insurance for the average American family was USD $23,968. For those with employment benefits, $6,575 of the cost is paid by the employees themselves. The average American family paid about CAD $9000 for health insurance in 2024.

According to the report a family of four in Canada with a household income of $175,266 will pay an estimated $17,713 for public health insurance this year. Finally, the average parent of two children will pay $4,908 for health care in 2024.

This year, 23.3% of taxes will be spent on Canadian health care.

According to the study, $225.1 billion was spent on health care in 2023, which would mean $5,614 per Canadian in that year. However, because of the progressive tax system, that number does not account for differences between Canadians with different incomes and living conditions.

Canadian households in the bottom 10% will pay an average of $639 for public health insurance in 2024. The 10% of Canadian households with a median household income of $81,825 will pay $7,758 for public health care. insurance, and households in the top 10% of earners in Canada will pay $47,071.

Health care costs have increased 2.2 times faster than food costs and 1.6 times faster than housing costs.

Spending on housing increased by 150.5%, food spending on food increased by 111.1 percent, and spending on clothing increased by 18.5%, which is a decrease in the cost of clothing compared to years ago. In contrast, health care insurance for the average Canadian family increased by 239.6%.

“There are very important questions Canadians need to ask about the type of health care system we pay for,” Nadeem Esmail, co-author of the study, told True North in conversation. “When we look at the cost-benefit ratio in Canada, Canadians get more money.”

He noted that Canadians face an average of 27.7 weeks of waiting time for health care by 2023, the longest on record. In one case, True North reports, a patient was told there was a three-year waiting list for a specialist.

Canada was the lowest among the 30 high-income countries with global access to health services in 2023 despite spending the most from those countries. It ranked 28th in access to doctors, 23rd in hospital beds, and 25th in MRI machines and has the longest waiting list for any of those nations with data available.

“We pay a lot of money for health care, one of the highest price tags in the world by age, and we have the worst access to health care. good in the developed world for that,” Esmail said.

He said health care costs rose sharply in 2020, as expected from the global COVID-19 pandemic, but fell in 2022 for “many types of households ” due to inflation. He noted that in 2024, Canada will have the highest health care costs than in the years before the pandemic.

He said: “The general trend of health care providing very poor access for high cost is continuing and is being matched by waiting times now, not “It’s more than what it was before the crisis and it’s still growing,” he said.

He believes that Canada should follow the lead of countries such as Switzerland, Japan, Germany, Australia and the Netherlands, which are in better positions in terms of faster access to health care, shorter wait times, higher utilization low cost and “some of the best. health care performance outcomes in the developed world.”

“All these countries have adopted private competition in the provision of universal services, which allows a private alternative to the global system for times when the public system is unwilling or unable to meet the needs of patient and requires patients to share the cost of care. They eat through user fees or co-payments,” he said. “For the worst access to health in the developed world, there are better ways to provide health care out there.”