Our healthcare system is unsustainable!

It's one of those senseless memes, repeated so often it seems entirely senseable.

Well, contrary to all manner of political blather, our healthcare system is actually a veritable picture of sustainability.

The Canadian healthcare debate has been hijacked, taken over by partisan hacks. These guys have got an agenda, but no Google to back it up.

Research is manipulated, economics are disregarded and politics are pursued at the cost of the truth.

So let's set the record straight:

Myth: Healthcare Costs Are Spiraling Out of Control

How dramatically are healthcare costs increasing? How about, 'not at all'?

Canada spends the same share of it's national income on healthcare today as it did ten years ago (see "National Health Expenditures in Canada", page 6).

Critics point to increasing provincial healthcare budgets, but ignore decreasing federal tranfers.

They point to larger dollar amounts, but ignore economic growth.

They point to the last few years -- in which healthcare spending has increased -- but ignore the staggering cuts in years prior.

Parse it anyway you want: we spent about 10% of GDP on healthcare a decade ago, we spend about 10% of GDP on healthcare today.

Myth: We Spend Too Much on Healthcare Already

According to the OECD Canada does spend more on healthcare than the vast majority of developed countries, but still falls near the middle of the pack in healthcare outcomes. Do we spend too much, for too little?

A couple of problems:

Canada may rank third in healthcare spending today, but only after having fallen to seventh during the 1990s. Healthcare systems aren't built in a day. Our system is still suffering a hangover from heavy handed cuts by Paul Martin's.

This comparison is also based on U.S. dollars, adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP). In other words, the OECD converts Canadian to American dollars at an exchange rate of 83.3 cents. Hardly what you can get at the bank.

PPP exchange rates are a great way to compare two countries respective purchasing power, but our purchasing power is higher in part because of our public, non-profit healthcare system. This methodology filters that out.

All that being said, we can still improve Canadian healthcare, but the question is still 'How?'

Myth: Private Healthcare is the Solution

As covered in a previous post, there are plenty of economic arguments to be made against private healthcare. But let's take look at some emperical data -- shall we folks?

When it comes to private healthcare, there's really only one country to talk about: the United States.

Why?

Because the United States is the only major developed country with a mostly private healthcare system. (Well, there's Luxembourg -- but I wouldn't call them 'major'.)

As a percentage of their economy, Americans spend 40% more on healthcare than we do.

But the American economy is bigger than ours (ouch!). So, in U.S. dollars at purchasing power parity, Americans spend 75% more on healthcare than we do.

In straight U.S. dollars, the American government actually spends more on healthcare than the Canadian government does -- eventhough their system is mostly private.

After all that money, American healthcare outcomes are only -- at best -- equal to those in Canada.

Convinced yet?

(This is me, wallowing in smug anti-Americanism.)

No!?

What'll it take?

Maybe that American healthcare costs are increasing faster than in Canada?

They're increasing about two and a half times faster -- about 13 percent a year.

That's really what it all comes down to:

While neo-cons and neo-liberal tells us our healthcare system is failing, we get to glimpse the future -- and watch the very alternative they suggest, collapsing before our own eyes -- just a little to the south.