Canadians' out-of-pocket spending for prescription drugs, dental care and insurance premiums rose over a 12-year period for all families, especially people with lower incomes who may have reduced their use of health-care services, a new report suggests.
Statistics Canada's report, "Trends in out-of-pocket health care expenditures in Canada, by household income, 1997 to 2009," released Wednesday shows the increase in these expenses was greatest for households in the lowest one-fifth of income.
"What we saw in the data was for the poorest households, the amount that they spent out of pocket, after adjusting for inflation, went from $600 to over $1,000," said study co-author Michael Law of the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at the University of British Columbia.