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Health costs rising slowest since 1997

Minister credits province's innovation

By: Larry Kusch

Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012 at 8:04 AM | Comments: 0

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Dr. Mike Moffatt, a pediatrician, said he's not surprised by the findings regarding health-care costs for kids. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Provincial health spending is increasing at its slowest pace across Canada since 1997 as governments wrestle with the effects of modest economic growth and hefty budget deficits.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information forecast said Tuesday that provincial and territorial health spending will rise by an average of 3.1 per cent in 2012 after increasing by double that amount for much of the past decade.

In Manitoba, government health spending is expected to rise 3.9 per cent, the same as in Saskatchewan and British Columbia, but below Alberta's rate of 4.4 per cent.

"In the last decade, the 2000s, health spending had been growing on average close to seven per cent per year," said Christopher Kuchciak, the institute's manager of health expenditures. "We're in a different world now. We see slower economic growth. We see governments running deficits," he said.

Total health spending in Canada is anticipated to reach $207 billion in 2012, averaging $5,948 per person. The figures include public- and private-sector expenditures. In Manitoba, total health spending is expected to hit $6,518 per capita this year.

Health Minister Theresa Oswald said Tuesday she believes Manitoba can go further in cutting the annual growth in health-care costs. Health spending in Manitoba represents 44.3 per cent of the provincial budget, according to the institute.

Oswald said the province is implementing "lean management techniques" and investing in technology in a bid to drive costs downward. "We'll do it through innovation, not on the backs of patients," she vowed.

Meanwhile, the 178-page CIHI report also examined the costs to the health-care system by various age groups.

It found that children ages five to nine are the least burdensome to the health-care system, while, not surprisingly, persons aged 90 and over place the greatest demand on health-care resources (see accompanying box).

Dr. Mike Moffatt, a pediatrician and head of research and applied learning with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, said he's not surprised by the findings.

"Those are actually the healthiest times of anybody's life," he said of kids aged four to nine.

The study estimated the cost per year of providing health care to children under the age of one was $9,372 per child in Manitoba in 2010. Costs per person then drastically drop and don't climb that high again until folks reach their 70s.

Moffatt said driving up costs for babies is the fact that many are born premature and require considerable care. Infants typically spend their first days in hospital, and hospitals are expensive places to run.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

Numbers show how costs change

Health spending by age group*

Age ManitobaCanada

Under 1 $9,372$9,263

1-4 $1,572$1,495

5-9 $1,251$1,275

10-14 $1,525$1,281

15-19 $1,756$1,538

20-24 $2,037$1,707

25-29 $2,295$2,011

30-34 $2,438$2,155

35-39 $2,463$2,148

40-44 $2,573$2,206

45-49 $2,776$2,437

50-54 $3,299$2,917

55-59 $3,923$3,536

60-64 $5,133$4,380

65-69 $6,472$6,223

70-74 $8,782$8,721

75-79 $12,140$12,049

80-84 $16,847$15,768

85-89 $25,859$24,116

90-plus $30,166$25,970

*Estimated dollars spent per person per year

-- source: Canadian Institute for Health Information

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