Health-care spending in B.C. is expected to grow 3.4 per cent in 2022, a significant drop from double-digit growth during the height of COVID-19, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
Nationally, the unprecedented rise in health care costs due to COVID is expected to slow as the pandemic threat recedes.
Across the country in 2020, health-care spending jumped by 13 per cent, followed by a 7.6 per cent increase in 2021. This year, growth in spending is projected to slow to 0.8 per cent. Before the pandemic, growth averaged about four per cent annually.
B.C.’s projected growth rate of 3.4 per cent is higher than the national average.
Chris Kuchciak, manager of health expenditures at CIHI, said variations across provinces are normal, as many factors, including delivery of care, compensation of the workforce, demographics and COVID responses, vary between provinces and territories.
But B.C. mirrors the overall trend of a dramatic decrease in spending this year compared with the previous years. In 2020, health-care spending in B.C. rose by 11 per cent, then increased by 10 per cent in 2021.
“There’s a flattening out of health-care spending, but we are not seeing a return to pre-pandemic levels of spending,” said Kuchciak, noting that many jurisdictions are catching up on care that was halted or scaled back during the pandemic.
“Deferred care or care that didn’t happen during the pandemic is happening now. You see hospitals with backlogs of elective surgery catching up on that, and the return of routine care for chronic conditions.”
Canada’s health-care system will also continue to require more spending due to an aging population and population growth, he said.
The CIHI projects B.C. will spend $8,800 per person on health care this year, higher than the national figure of $8,563 per Canadian.
Nationally, total health-care spending is expected to reach $331 billion in 2022, representing 12.2 per cent of GDP following a high of nearly 14 per cent of GDP in 2020.
Health funding to deal with COVID is projected at $14.5 billion in 2022, about four per cent of total health-care spending. In comparison, COVID costs made up nearly 10 per cent of the total health-care budget in 2021, at $32.5 billion.
On a per-person basis, COVID costs will decline to $376 per person in 2022, less than half the $770 per person cost in 2020.
Hospitals, physicians and drugs make up the three highest categories of spending. Hospital costs make up nearly a quarter of health spending, at 24.3 per cent, followed by physicians and drugs, both at 13.6 per cent.
