Guest Speaker Marc Lee

Muriel Groves introduced Marc Lee Senior Economist, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Marc talked about the general funding issues for health care. We currently spend $0.07 for every dollar on public healthcare. What matters is GDP not the budget if the increase in spending on health care is at the same level as the economy grows, then he sees that the public healthcare system as sustainable. The problems are not just the aging demographics but also the other issues such as population growth, healthcare inflation increased payments to doctors and nurses and enrichment expansion and improved healthcares services. Technologies are driver of costs diagnostics, screenings and new ways to treat illnesses. Marc also talked about the cost of dying it is not just about aging the most expensive care is in the last years of life, no matter what age. Today we get about 1.5 times the services that our predecessors received. In summary, Marc said if you put all of the issues together aging, inflation, technology we will need to increase spending about 5% a year. The economy tends to grow on average over 5% a year so given these numbers healthcare looks sustainable. What we will see some re-allocation of spending to adjust for demographics, but healthcare is not the time bomb we are led to believe it is. Notes this week by Jackie Read