According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), the Canadian government spends $3,000 per person on health care annually. That’s a lot of money. In fact, hospitals count for 41.5% of the spending, doctors 20% and drugs 8.5%. The lower drug expenditure might have something to do with the fact that only 38% of annual drug spending was by the government, the rest was private insurance and personal spending. Drugs are the fastest-growing category of health care spending, with drug spending estimated to have reached 17.5% of total health expenditure in 2005.

What does this all mean? It means that we, as a country, spend a lot on hospitals, a lot on drugs and it all breaks down to about $3,000/year per person. Strangely enough, I don’t feel like I have received the full benefit of this spending. Personally, I’d rather have the money.

With $3,000 a year I could:

• Have five biofeedback information and balancing sessions (approx $1,000)

• Invest in a proper diet (organic) ($1000)

• Health education and supplementation

• Gym membership and personal instruction ($1000)

• Stress reduction ($1000)

• Occasional massages

• At least one annual relaxing vacation.

Now, I am in the hole for $1000, but that’s only my first year. As I become balanced and healthy, while changing my eating habits and lifestyle, my annual cost would more than cut in half. Plus, we forget that 62% of annual drug expenses are out of pocket. Last year, we spent $25 Billion on drugs, an additional $766/person. While the cost for preventative health care would go down, the cost for your current government health plan is on the rise. In fact, your $3000 could more than double in the next five years! Yet people are getting sicker and sicker with more pain, complications and disease.

So in a few years, the government will allocate $6000 toward my ‘sick-care’. But I won’t be sick. I will use $1500 towards maintaining my optimal health through biofeedback, healthy eating, exercise, reducing stress etc. The long term benefits of my personal preventative health plan would be no obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart disease, plus better production at work, reduced absenteeism, overall general health and a longer pain free life.

In fact, if the government just invested these infamous $3000 on better health education, treating each individual as an individual with specific needs, prevention and defence against disease instead of treating disease after it overwhelms, we’d be a much happier healthier society and we wouldn’t need $3000 per person for sick-care or health care. That money could be transferred to the transportation department to offer each Canadian a free annual vacation in sunny Turks and Caicos.

Wow! I feel better already. Now, how about you?