Kevin Libin (from the National Post)
Canadians have witnessed a dot-com bubble, housing bubbles and a green energy bubble. But now, the country is experiencing a "medicare bubble," says a new report being released today by the Fraser Institute, and it's got the provinces headed toward severe financial trouble if the federal government doesn't loosen the constraints of the Canada Health Act.
Like a too-hot housing market, costs for health care are rising at a rate appreciably out of whack with economic and provincial revenue growth rates, the study finds. Over the last decade, medi-care spending in Canada inflated at 7.5% a year, compared to just 5.7% growth in provincial revenue and an average yearly expansion of 5.2% in GDP.
"We are facing a period of unsustainable growth in health-care expenditure, which has been increasing over time," said Mark Rovere, Associate Director of the Health Policy Research Centre at the Fraser Institute and the study's coauthor. "We're really facing a dire need for change. The status quo is simply not working." Read more...
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