Public sector health care funding shrinks

Public sector health care funding shrinks - again

Private funding of health care is increasing faster than public funding. Now the Canadian Institute for Health Information reports that public funding is expected to fall to 69.7% of total funding in 2012.

Public funding has been much higher -- in 1976 it provided 77% of all health care funding. After a slow, multi-year decline, it had stabilized by 1996. But it has now fallen three years in a row.

Canadian public sector health care spending is expected to increase 2.9% in 2012 while private funding is expected to increase 4.6% (more than half again as fast).

Public sector expenditure is the lowest of all provinces and territories in Ontario -- at 67.8% in 2011. Ontario also saw the second lowest increase per capita in public sector health care expenditures in 2011, with a 1% increase. The cross-Canada increase was 1.7%.

Private funding of health care increases inequality as only those with the cash (or robust private insurance) will receive the full range health care services.

Total expenditures (public and private) on health care are expected to fall as a percentage of the economy to 11.7% in 2011 and 11.6% in 2012. This, after a spike in the portion of the economy devoted to health care when the economy shrank during the 2008-9 recession

Total increases in expenditures on health care are expected to be 3.9% in 2011 and 3.4% in 2012. This is far short of the 7% increases Canada and other developed countries saw in the previous decade (2000-2010).

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