Dr. Cindy Forbes, president of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), says that Canada’s latest recession should get Canadians to think about how revitalizing the health system can help grow the economy in an aging society.
The comments were made shortly after Statistics Canada reported that the gross domestic product declined for a sixth straight month to fit the technical definition of an economic recession.
Dr. Forbes says, “A healthy health care system has wide economic implications affecting everything from fiscal policy to labour output as the ratio of active members of the workforce to retired Canadians continues to decline.”
As of today, there are about five working Canadians for every retiree and by 2030, that ratio is predicted to fall to 2.7 workers per retiree.
“We can’t continue to warehouse seniors in hospital beds at $1,000 a day when they should be in long-term care or home care at a fraction of the cost because we’re not spending smart. Nor can we expect an army of informal caregivers to work 1.5 billion hours of unpaid work a year looking after loved ones and depriving the economy of productivity worth $1.3 billion.”
