Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
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66<br />
6.0<br />
5.0<br />
4.0<br />
3.0<br />
2.0<br />
1.0<br />
<strong>Health</strong> systems in transition <strong>Canada</strong><br />
To gain a fuller appreciation of the link between economic growth and<br />
health spending, it is worthwhile comparing the Canadian experience with all<br />
higher income OECD countries <strong>for</strong> which comparable data are available. As can<br />
be seen in Fig. 3.5, total health spending exceeded economic growth (location<br />
above the 45 degree line) in almost all these countries between 1998 and 2008.<br />
Overall, this relationship speaks to the fact that health care is, to a considerable<br />
extent, what economists call a superior good. As national incomes go up over<br />
time, governments tend to spend progressively more of these increases on health<br />
care relative to other goods and services. This observation is consistent with a<br />
series of empirical studies conducted by Gerdtham & Jönsson (2000) in which<br />
higher income was found to be the single most important factor determining<br />
higher levels of health expenditure in higher income countries.<br />
Fig. 3.5<br />
Average growth in government health expenditure per capita and GDP per capita,<br />
1998–2008<br />
Growth (%)<br />
Source: CIHI (2011b).<br />
Belgium<br />
United States<br />
Denmark<br />
United Kingdom<br />
Australia<br />
Japan<br />
Switzerland<br />
France<br />
Germany<br />
Norway<br />
New Zealand<br />
Austria<br />
Spain<br />
<strong>Canada</strong><br />
Sweden<br />
Iceland<br />
45 Degree line<br />
0.0<br />
Ireland<br />
0.0 1.0<br />
2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0<br />
Finland<br />
Average annual real growth in GDP per capita (%)<br />
0.07