In a study that highlights the average health care spending of Canadian families, Fraser Institute has revealed that health care in the country isn’t free and a typical Canadian family spent $12K annually for public health care insurance in 2015.
The study – The Price of Public Health Care Insurance – is a result of Fraser Institute’s aim of providing Canadian families a means of understanding the cost of public health care for them and their families.
The report by the independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank, reveals that while Canadians aren’t paying anything for the health care directly, they are spending around 10 per cent of their annual income for health care through their taxes – average Canadian family with two parents and two children earning $119,082 will pay $11,735 for public health care insurance in 2015. A single individual earning $42,244 can expect to pay $4,222.
Bacchus Barua, study co-author and senior economist in the Fraser Institute’s Centre for Health Policy Studies, says that most Canadians aren’t aware of the actual cost of health care as they never see a bill and only pay a small so-called “premium” for health-insurance.
Fraser Institute also tracked the cost of health care insurance over a period of 10 years from 2005 to 2015 and found that the cost of health care for the average Canadian family increased by 48.5 per cent – a huge increase as compared to increase in income which stood at just 30.8 per cent, shelter 35.9 per cent and food 18.2 per cent.
“Over the past decade, the cost of health care in Canada has grown 1.6 times faster than average income,” Barua said.
The report notes that 10 per cent of Canadian families with the lowest incomes will pay an average of about $477 for public health care insurance in 2015. The 10 per cent of Canadian families who earn an average income of $59,666 will pay an average of $5,684 for public health care insurance and the families among the top 10 per cent of income earners in Canada will pay $37,180.
The Price of Public Health Care Insurance report used data from Statistics Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information. You can download the report for free from here [PDF].
Just goes to show how stupid we are- – Politicians (and I mean all of them) say the reason why we pay such high taxes in this country is because of our “free Health care?????) Nothing is free – the Governments of this country, municipal, provincial and federal have the misconception that they are spending their money – Simply put they are spending OUR money and wasting a lot of it (an example – Kingston General hospital CEO makes just under 500,000 a year and they have enough nerve to ask for donations??) — I often wonder how much better we would be if we clawed back our high tax rate and purchased our own health insurance – I would venture a guess we would probably pay less. Come on Canadians quit being fish on a hook!!!!! PS _ if you vote for the Liberals or NDP prepare to pay even more tax as they try to transition into a communist style government – ie – take from people that have money and give it to those who do not regardless of whether they sit on their ass or work.
The reason we pay high taxes in this country is because of massively excessive bureaucratic overhead and corporations and the wealthy not paying their fair share.
This headline would be true of the “Typical” Canadian family earned $120,000 a year.
Unfortunately they don’t. According to Stats Canada the average family earns closer to $79,000 a year which would put thier health care tax burden at between 6 and 7 thousand using the Fraser institutes own figures.
Figures don’t lie but liars figure.