The Canadian Health Coalition is dedicated to preserving and enhancing Canada’s public health system for the benefit of all Canadians.

APPENDIX 1

Canadian Health Coalition’s Five-Year Budget Plan to Save and Improve Canada’s Public Health Care System

Assumptions

It can be assumed that half of the federal transfer under the CHST was for health, which would give a starting point of $6 billion. By combining expenditures for existing cash transfers plus new cash transfers for home care and pharmacare, the federal cash contribution would increase by $4.6B per year. Assume that total public spending grows by $5B per year [$4.6 federal and $.4B provincial]. Assume that total health spending grows by $5.5 billion per year [$4.6B federal, $.4B provincial, and $.5B private, although the private share might be a bit low].

The Proposal

The first column is growth in federal cash transfers. The second column is total public spending. The third column indicates the federal share as a proportion of total public spending. The fourth column is total health spending [public and private], and the fifth column is the federal portion as a share of that total.

	Federal Cash Transfer ($ billions)	Total Public Spending ($ billions)	Federal Share (%)	Total Spending ($ billions)	Federal Share (%)
1999-2000	10.6	55	19	80.0	13.2
2000-2001	15.2	60	25	85.5	17.7
2001-2002	19.6	65	30	91.0	21.5
2002-2003	24.2	70	34	96.5	25.0
2003-2004	28.8	75	38	102.0	28.2