RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Canadian health expenditures: Where do we really stand internationally?
JF Canadian Medical Association Journal
JO CMAJ
FD Canadian Medical Association
SP 1730
OP 1734
VO 160
IS 12
A1 R. Deber
A1 B. Swan
YR 1999
UL http://www.cmaj.ca/content/160/12/1730.abstract
AB There are different ways to measure how much Canada spends on health care and the quality of these measurements may vary. This paper examines Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data for 3 common standards of measure: health expenditures as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP), nominal spending per capita (US dollars) and spending per capita in purchasing power parities (PPP) equivalents. In 1994, the most recent year for which there were firm data. Canada spent 9.9% of its GDP on health care (rank 3 of 29), and $1999 PPPs per capita (rank 3). However, actual spending was only US$1824 per capita (rank 14). In the same year Japan spent 7% of GDP on health care (rank 22), $1478 in PPPs per capita (rank 16), but actually spent US$2614 per capita (rank 3). Although each measure is suitable for some policy purposes, Canadian spending remains modest by international standards.