Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
We’ve never spent more on health care. It’s been eating up a larger and larger slice of the government spending pie for decades.
Demand and costs are increasing faster than spending. That’s where the capacity shortfall has come from. Not from spending cuts.
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That's a fact basically everywhere. Modern healthcare is more expensive and a relatively older population is also more expensive to treat. But the lack of growth in funding relative to peer countries is pretty stark:
-In 1990 Canada was #2 on the OECD in total health spending as a % of GDP and now we're 10th.
-Also in 1990, Canada was #3 in the OECD in government health spending as a % of GDP and now we're 13th.
-Since the early '90s, Canada's government spending on healthcare (as a % of GDP) has increased by about 15-20%. That pales in comparison to countries like Japan (120%), Netherlands (85%), UK (85%), Australia (65%), Germany (60%), France (60%), New Zealand (60%), and Sweden (50%).
It's clear that peer countries are investing far more heavily in improving health care than Canada is, and it shows in the quality disparity.