Alberta’s healthcare spending higher than national average

The latest numbers from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) shows that Alberta is among the highest in provincial spending per person on healthcare.

This as the province is expected to spend just over $9,000 per person in 2023 — a slight 2.6 per cent jump from the previous year, but still below the rate of inflation.

“It’s more the longer-term drivers in the system that are taking over so for example, we’re seeing on the demand side, higher need in use for hospital services physician services driven by population aging and higher levels of population growth, as well as the lingering effects of clearing backlogs from the pandemic and wait times,” explained Chris Kuchciak, manager of health expenditures at the CIHI.

Hospitals, physicians, and drugs make up more than half of all $41.9 billion in healthcare spending, but there are concerns that healthcare spending isn’t growing as the population ages and people enter the province.

“It’s kind of disappointing that we didn’t really learn lessons from the pandemic, we didn’t learn the structural issues in our healthcare system in terms of capacity—both infrastructure and worker capacity,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director with Friends of Medicare. “We’re not addressing those as Alberta continues to grow.”

The share of the health funding spent on those 65 and up has slightly decreased all across the country.

Gallaway adds that the level healthcare funding increases or decreases doesn’t necessarily line up with the quality of service residents receive.

“The context matters so much versus the total numbers,” he said. “If the provincial government had successfully cut the insulin pump program and suddenly families are paying more instead of the pub;ic — it’s hard to look at the total number without saying what’s shifting it.”

The Canadian Institute for Health Information also adding that inflationary pressures will continue to dictate health spending going forward.