It’s a balancing act. Every provincial and territorial government in the country is having a difficult time balancing their books while healthcare costs skyrocket.  

According to a recent report titled National Health Expenditure Trends, 1975 to 2011, this year spending will increase by 4% over last year to $5,811 per Canadian. It’s estimated that health care will cost $200.5 billion this year.

It’s not cheap that’s for sure. I’m sure every one of us has a story to tell about how health care costs negatively impacted our bank accounts because certain procedures were not covered.  

The driving forces behind the increase are hospitals, health care professionals and prescription drugs – all very important aspects of our healthcare system, without them, our system would be in utter ruins.

So what do we need to do to bring down this enormous bill? Hire less medical professionals, let hospitals crumble to the grown, or increase what consumers pay for prescription drugs?

Those are all questions that raise different answers because of their impacts on the health care system and on those who need affordable drugs and the ones feeling pain every day.

As our country has a universal health system, maybe it’s our role to ensure we assist our frontline workers and be cognizant of the costs.

One simple way is to ensure we only visit the hospital when we really need to, and others include exercising and eating healthy.

Prevention may be the first step in lowering this massive bill so funds could get distributed elsewhere...what do you think?

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