Canada’s health spending growth ‘modest,’ remains below pre-pandemic levels: CIHI – Barrie Today
Growth in Canada’s health spending increased slightly but has remained below pre-pandemic levels and is expected to reach $344 billion in 2023, new data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information says.
That’s about $8,740 per person, CIHI’s national health expenditure trends report said Thursday.
The institute’s health-care spending data includes money spent by the public sector, private sector and money paid by individuals.
The projected total for 2023 is a rise of about $9 billion from last year, but still well under the year-over-year growth seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Between 2015 and 2019, health-care spending increased by an average of 4.3 per cent per year. The pandemic drove a sharp 13.2 per cent rise in 2020, followed by a 7.8 per cent increase in 2021.
But in 2022, the annual growth in health spending decreased to 1.5 per cent — and has risen by a “modest” 2.8 per cent in 2023, said Christopher Kuchciak, manager of health expenditures at CIHI.
