Not so much - from Canada's National Post:
‘It’s not free’: Canadian health care insurance almost doubles in cost during last decade as average family pays $12K
Canadians may like to believe they have access to free health care, but a new report squashes those illusions.
An average Canadian family pays $12,000 per year for health care insurance and those costs have nearly doubled in the last decade, according to a Fraser Institute report.
“Contrary to the way we find (health care insurance) is characterized, it isn’t free,” Bacchus Barua, co-author of the study said.
The think-tank found that health care insurance costs for all Canadians increased by 48.5 per cent to an estimated $8,205 from $5,527 in the last decade.
Health care insurance costs are also rising 1.6 times faster than the average Canadian income, the report says, leading Barua to have an issue with the system.
“When health care insurance is growing faster than income, it’s an indication you can’t sustain it,” Barua said.
Follow the money:
Barua said many Canadians may believe health care insurance is free because they never see a bill for medical costs and it doesn’t have a dedicated tax. It is instead funded by general government revenue that is collected from multiple sources such as Employment Insurance, the Canadian Pension Plan, property taxes, sales taxes, and import duties.
The report also suggests that Canadians living in provinces with health care premiums may be inclined to believe that they cover the full cost.
“However, the reality is that these premiums cover just a fraction of the cost of health care and are paid into general revenues from which health care is funded,” the report says.
Makes a lot of sense - until Medicare kicked in, the only insurance I could find was about $900/month despite my being very healthy and having both parents die at extended ages (Dad - 94, Mom - 87). If they deregulated it and let the competition of the open market kick in, costs to end users would tumble.
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