The history of healthcare spending overruns by provincial and territorial governments means Canadians must wait for the final numbers before concluding that public healthcare spending is growing at a sustainable rate
Government Budget Overruns Cast Doubt on Reports of Sustainable Healthcare Spending
Canadians should hold off on declaring a slowdown in government healthcare spending to sustainable growth rates, says a C.D. Howe Institute report released today. In “Bending Canada’s Healthcare Cost Curve: Watch Not What Governments Say, But What They Do,” author William B.P. Robson finds that reports of slower growth in healthcare spending have been repeatedly wrong-footed by chronic budget overshoots. So recent estimates that healthcare spending is no longer growing faster than the economy may also prove optimistic.
