Canada's Health Care System

The Health Status of Canadians

Many factors affect a person's health. Throughout the world, economic status has a strong impact on illness, disability and mortality. Where a person lives, either in urban or rural areas, affects service delivery and costs. Age is also a factor-- young people and the elderly have distinct health concerns. Gender must also be considered because women tend to live longer than men but suffer more from chronic poor health. Jobs and the workplace play their part through exposure to hazards that can affect health such as chemicals, noise, radiation, infectious agents and psychosocial stress.

Canadians have a very favourable health status. Canada's high ranking on the United Nations Human Development Index is due, in large measure, to Canada's health care system. ⁶ The length of time a person could be expected to live (life expectancy) is widely used to show health status. As of 2002, the average life expectancy at birth for Canadians was 82.1 years for women and 77.2 years for men, which is among the highest in the industrialized countries. ⁷ The number of deaths of children under one year (infant mortality) is another widely used measure to demonstrate health status. Canada's infant mortality rate for 2002 of 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births is one of the lowest in the world. ⁸

The good health status of Canadians is based on more than health care services. Health is now considered to be a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not just the absence of disease or illness. This approach includes social, economic and physical environmental factors that contribute to health. Focusing on health promotion, public health, population health and prevention aims to improve the health of an entire population and to reduce health inequities among population groups.

The principle which has dominated our thinking is that money spent on essential health care is money well spent, an investment in human resources that will pay handsome dividends not only in terms of economics but in human well-being.

Canada. Royal, Royal Commission...: [Report], Vol. II, 1965, p. 18

Endnotes

⁶ The UN Human Development Index measures human development of 175 countries in three areas: life expectancy at birth; educational attainment; and standard of living. For further information see www.undp.org.
⁷ Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Health Data. Paris: OECD, 2004.
⁸ OECD, Health..., 2004.