Provincial spending on health care increased for the fourth straight year in 2000, after 5 years of low growth or declining expenditures. Preliminary provincial and territorial health spending data released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information show that the amount spent on health care reached $59 billion in 1999, accounting for just over 35% of all provincial government spending. That is expected to have climbed to 37% during 2001.
Health care spending as a percentage of provincial gross domestic product (GDP) was relatively stable during the late 1990s, at about 6%. The Atlantic provinces and Manitoba, which tend to have lower GDPs than the other provinces, spent a greater proportion — 8; to 9% of GDP — on health care.
During the period of minimal growth in total spending on health care that lasted from 1992 to 1996, per capita expenditures declined from $1708 to $1648, or by 3.5;. More recently, per capita spending increased to $1932 in 1999 and is expected to reach $2229 in 2001. After adjusting for inflation, this translates to a 26% increase since 1996. However, the higher 2001 figures represent only a 16% increase from per capita spending levels set in 1991.
By 2001, all provinces are expected to have showed gains in adjusted (real) per capita spending over the levels of a decade earlier. If this occurs, Newfoundland will see the biggest increase (49%) followed by Manitoba at 34% and New Brunswick at 30%. Alberta has more than recovered from its period of decline during the first half of the 1990s, posting an spending increase of 58% since 1995.
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Lynda Buske
lynda.buske@cma.ca
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