Canadians need to control health care costs too

  My good friend Nils Finne raised a question in the comments to this post about how well Canadian are doing at controlling health care costs. The answer is: not well. The chart is made from data presented by Towers Watson. The vertical axis is the growth in national medical spending minus the general inflation rate for the country (or average of countries). Canadian cost growth has been greater than US or an advanced country average over the last five years.

Canada is, of course, increasing health care costs from a lower base level of spending compared to the US (but not compared to other advanced countries). As someone who has spent a career inside the US health system, things look lean here. Nevertheless, if these data are correct, these are truly dangerous rates of growth in cost. 

Comments

[Brad F]

Bill
Odd. I have always found it quirky that many folks sing the praises of the "others," and their lower per capita costs, aggregate spend, etc. A historical blip that we started our adventure a bit richer and a bit earlier. Nothing you dont know, obviously.

Nonetheless, I see the United States with an uncut lawn, 4 inches overgrown. Ditto with Canada, but only at 2 inches. However, both homeowners have a lawnmower that wont start. Ugly landscaping.

You get the drift, and the comparison can be made with a majority of OECD nations. Never gets mentioned, with the exception of the policy set.

PNHP et al need a refresher, and the slightly off key tune they sing is not helping their minions achieve a richer understanding of future problems.

Good post.
Brad

[Bill Gardner]

Brad,
I like the lawn metaphor, and thanks for the kind words.