A typical Canadian family with two parents and two children will pay up to 11,786 Canadian dollars (1 Canadian dollar equals to 0.94 U.S. dollar) for public health care in 2014, said a new study released Thursday.
The study, dubbed the Price of Public Health Care Insurance issued by the independent Canadian public policy think-tank, the Fraser Institute, can help Canadians better understand health care costs and the value they receive for their tax dollars.
"Health care in Canada is not free--while Canadians may not pay directly for medical services, they pay a substantial amount of money for health care through taxes," said Bacchus Barua, study co- author and senior economist with the Institute's Center for Health Policy Studies.
In fact, most Canadians are unaware of the true cost of health care because they are not billed for any portion of physician and hospital services covered by tax-funded health care insurance.
Moreover, general government revenue --not a dedicated tax -- bankrolls health care, while health care premiums cover only a fraction of health care costs.
However, using data from Statistics Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the study estimates the amount of taxes Canadian families will pay for public health insurance in 2014, and by how much it has increased over the last decade.
The study found that the average single individual earning roughly 42,000 dollars will pay 4,381 dollars for public health care insurance, while a family of two adults and two children earning approximately 118,000 dollars in 2014 will pay 11,786 dollars.
In 2014, the 10 percent of Canadian families with an average income of 57,818 dollars will pay an average of 5,522 dollars, while families among the top 10 percent of income earners in Canada will pay 37,239 dollars.
The study also revealed that between 2004 and 2014, the cost of health care insurance for the average Canadian family increased by 53.3 percent, dwarfing income rises of 34.7 percent.