World

Report: Canadian health care spending unsustainable

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Michael Bastasch DCNF Managing Editor
Font Size:

Single-payer health care, once lauded by President Barack Obama for its ability to keep health care expenditures down by rationing care, has become prohibitively expensive and inefficient in Canada, according to a new study.

A 2011 report by the Fraser Institute concluded that Canada’s health care system is spending at an unsustainable rate. Six of ten Canadian provinces are on track to spend half of their revenues on health care, according to the institute.

“We conclude that Canada’s health system produces rates of growth in health spending that are not sustainable solely through redistributive public financing,” the report concluded.

In 2011, health care spending consumed 50 percent of revenues in Canada’s two largest provinces, Ontario and Quebec.

By 2017, four more provinces — Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and New Brunswick — will spend half of their revenues on health care, according to the institute.

Total federal, provincial and territorial government health spending has grown by 8.1 percent annually, while the national GDP in Canada rose by only 6.7 percent during the same period.

In response to the rapidly rising costs, provincial governments have raised taxes and rationed care, increasing patient wait times. Provincial drug plans have also more often refused to pay for most of the drugs that are certified as “safe and effective” by Health Canada.

“Unsustainable rates of growth in health care spending crowd out the resources available for other purposes including education, public safety, and economic growth-enhancing tax relief,” Fraser Institute Senior Fellow Nadeem Esmail told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an email.

The Canadian federal government has also spent an increasing amount of money trying to subsidize health care. From 1997 to 1998 and 2006 to 2007, the federal government transferred $115.7 billion to provinces for health care — 36 billion more than was needed to keep up with population growth and inflation during the same period, according to the institute.

“Federal funding is not a solution: the federal government has already transferred billions more in health funding to the provinces than the amounts needed to keep up with general price inflation or population growth. Transfers encourage the provinces to avoid making necessary reforms,” the study said.

Despite increased federal funding and rationing of care by the provinces, health care expenditures keep rising.

“Importantly, none of the government’s rationing efforts have made the growth of government spending on health care sustainable over the long run,” the study added. “Despite being slowed by the continued rationing of publicly insured medical goods and services, government spending on health care has still grown faster on average than revenue in eight provinces over the last ten years.”

“Unless something is done about unsustainable rates of growth in health care spending, Canadians will face some combination of higher taxes (leading to lower rates of economic growth), increased rationing of health care goods and services, or reduced public services other than health care,” Esmail warned in his email.

President Obama has expressed support in the past for the Canadian health care system, though he said he wouldn’t want a Canadian system in the United States.

“I’ve said that the Canadian model works for Canada,” he said. “It would not work for the United States, in part simply because we’ve evolved differently,” he said. “So, we’ve got to develop a uniquely American approach to this problem.”

But Obama has expressed his support for single-payer in the past, saying there’s no reason why the U.S. should pay such a high price for health and not provide basic care for everyone.

Proponents of the Affordable Care Act cite the fact that the U.S. spends more than any other country in the OECD on health care. In 2010, the U.S. spent nearly 16 percent of GDP on health care, compared to the OECD average of 9.5 percent.

On Tuesday the Congressional Budget Office expects to release two reports on the ACA. One of the reports will focus on the budgetary impacts of the ACA, which will likely influence the public debate surrounding the economic merits of the law.

The ACA’s critics say the law represents an unprecedented overreach by government and will lead to centralized health care decision-making.

“Canada’s system comes at the cost of pain and suffering for patients who find themselves stuck on waiting lists with nowhere to go,” Esmail said. “Canada’s system is in a bad way because of too much government involvement. Americans would be well advised to look elsewhere, and away from excessive government control and intervention, for their solutions.”

Follow Michael on Twitter

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel