Healthcare: The Canadian Fiscal Crisis that America Would Love to Have

By Keith Edmund White

Editor-in-Chief

Canada's provinces are beginning to rein in healthcare spending, which means they are putting the breaks on near-double digit percent annual increases.  Sure, this is the beginning of a decade-delayed 'new reality' regarding raising healthcare spending.  But, as Keith White reports, if Canadian spending on healthcare constitutes a crisis, it's a crisis the United States would love to catch.

Jeffrey Simpson at The Globe & Mail highlights a big shift in how provinces are dealing with healthcare spending, and the possibility that provinces may need to start coming to gripes with containing healthcare spending.

After a decade allowing healthcare budgets to increase, all provinces, save one (i.e. Quebec), are holding back on healthcare spending.  Why?   Budgets are shrinking; healthcare costs are raising; and, after years of avoidance, provincial debts have to be reckoned with.

But the lurking sense of 'doom and gloom' in Simpson's article could easily bemuse an American observer.

Canada's Illusory Fiscal Responsibility

Hey Americans, don't feel jealous of Canada's estimable federal finances.

Just look at their provinces, and you'll feel just fine.  

Admittedly, the U.S. has a State pension problem too.

But maybe we should rethink Canada's fiscal image.

Lesson:  Creative accounting exists everywhere, and federalism creates fascinating budgetary flavors.  

From Maclean's: