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Thursday, August 2, 2012: 12:30 PM
Faculty of Economics, TBA
Healthcare cost containment is the most challenging issue facing nations worldwide. How to provide the public with optimal healthcare service with a sustainable healthcare system is probably the most important task for any government. Canada's spending on healthcare has been increasing sharply in recent decades, and a number of provinces are already running their healthcare systems in a deficit. How to preserve our healthcare system is now a pressing issue to the Canadian government as well as the Canadians.
Canada devotes more of its GDP to healthcare than all but five of 32 industrialized nations. In the year 2010, Canada's healthcare expenditure was at $192 billion. Its healthcare spending is 12% above the OECD average. At a pan-Canada level, per capita spending was $5,614 in 2010, while provincial per capita spending was estimated to range from a low at $5,096 in Quebec to a high at $6,266 in Alberta. In the territories, per capita spending was estimated to range from $7,977 in Yukon to $12,356 in Nunavut (CIHI, 2010a). Therefore, healthcare cost escalation and high healthcare cost is the most challenging issue in Canada's provincial and territorial healthcare systems. It is also a major issue to Canadian healthcare system as a whole. The unstoppable trend makes the Canadian healthcare system unsustainable.
This paper takes a population health perspective to explore ways in which a reduced healthcare cost can be achieved in Canada. Just as most population health issues can be tackled outside of healthcare settings, healthcare cost containment can be achieved through various efforts.
Canada devotes more of its GDP to healthcare than all but five of 32 industrialized nations. In the year 2010, Canada's healthcare expenditure was at $192 billion. Its healthcare spending is 12% above the OECD average. At a pan-Canada level, per capita spending was $5,614 in 2010, while provincial per capita spending was estimated to range from a low at $5,096 in Quebec to a high at $6,266 in Alberta. In the territories, per capita spending was estimated to range from $7,977 in Yukon to $12,356 in Nunavut (CIHI, 2010a). Therefore, healthcare cost escalation and high healthcare cost is the most challenging issue in Canada's provincial and territorial healthcare systems. It is also a major issue to Canadian healthcare system as a whole. The unstoppable trend makes the Canadian healthcare system unsustainable.
This paper takes a population health perspective to explore ways in which a reduced healthcare cost can be achieved in Canada. Just as most population health issues can be tackled outside of healthcare settings, healthcare cost containment can be achieved through various efforts.