Aging population in Canada and healthcare system strain

Aging Population in Canada and Health Care Crash

The article entitled "Aging Population will soon strain federal finances, watchdogs say" by Andrew Mayeda and published by the Vancouver Sun, a daily newspaper in Canada, reports the growing concerns of the aging Canadian population, the constraints it places on the healthcare sector, and the increasing pressures on the federal finances. Possible measures such as 'Tax increase' and 'spending restraint' and important structural reforms that the Canadian government should undertake to avert a potential healthcare and financial crisis are briefly mentioned. The article refers to the budget watchdog report prepared by Kevin Page, the Canadian Parliamentary budget officer, and briefly discusses the looming health care burden that Canada has to face over the next few decades. Though Canada's health care standard is ranked among the best in the world, the change in population dynamics resulting from a period of lowered birth rates and increasing life span have contributed to an increasing number of senior citizens, creating more strain on the financial structure and the quality of delivery of the national health care system. These concerns are very real as going by the budget report more than a quarter of the population would be above 65 by 2019 and projections further suggest that by 2029 more than one third of the national population would be above 65. This article frames the social issue of an aging population as a big problem for the country. This is true for other big countries as well. For example, the U.S., Europe, Japan as well as China are faced with the unique problems of an Aging population.

The article hints that though this looming demographic change would help improve healthcare reforms and provide more funding and technology into healthcare sector and particularly into geriatric care, sustaining high standards under the financial constraints that are already going out of proportions is really questionable. The demographic tide of Canada is becoming a nagging problem with a dwindling number of active workforce having to bear the increasing burden of quality universal healthcare. However, the problem is that the prospect of a slow growth in the labor market would only imply a slower growth of the general taxpayers and hence raising the tax is not a simple solution to managing the fiscal pressures. As the article indicates, in the absence of a Tax hike in this year's budget, the federal burden will continue to accrue and if no counter measures are undertaken by 2050, Canada's debts and deficits would equal the nation's GDP. The article suggests that a combination of increasing the GST, reducing government expenditure, and more importantly, other 'structural reforms' would be necessary to prevent the impending fiscal disaster. This is not a difficult prospect given the fact that Canada stands much better for structural reforms with its Debt to GDP ratio only at 33.9% compared to neighboring America whose Debt to GDP is almost double.