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CMAJ
CMAJ - April 18, 2000JAMC - le 18 avril 2000

Medicare

CMAJ 2000;162:1125

The information on health expenditures in the Feb. 8, 2000, editorial1 is dated, although this fact does not necessarily alter the main points made. The national health expenditure database, which is the basis of the Health Canada publication on national health expenditures to which you referred,2 was transferred from Health Canada to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). CIHI has produced 3 annual health expenditure reports since the Health Canada document was released in early 1997. The latest CIHI report was released on Dec. 16, 1999.3

According to the latest estimates, Quebec, not Alberta, has the lowest health expenditure per capita among the provinces: $2453 per person in 1999. Alberta has the 5th lowest expenditure, at $2832 per person. Nevertheless, Albertans continued to spend a lower proportion of their provincial gross domestic product on health in 1999 (7.6%) than citizens of any other jurisdiction in Canada.

Geoff Ballinger
Consultant
Canadian Institute for Health Information
Ottawa, Ont.
GBallinger@cihi.ca

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References

  1. Klein's surgical strike at medicare [editorial]. CMAJ 2000;162(3):309.
  2. Health Canada, Policy and Consultation Branch. National health expenditures in Canada 1975­1996. Ottawa: 1997. Available: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/datapcb/datahesa/hex97/fact.pdf (accessed 2000 Mar 20).
  3. Canadian Institute for Health Information. National health expenditure trends 1975­1999. Ottawa: The Institute; 1999. Summary-level data available: www.cihi.ca/facts/nhex/nhex.htm (accessed 2000 Mar 20).

© 2000 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors