The recent battle between Canadian pharmacies and the Ontario government over drug reimbursements brings to light an important issue facing Canadians today. Healthcare costs now account for almost 50% of your tax dollars.
In his article in the Toronto Star entitled "More than meets the eye in pharmacy fight", David Olive pointed out that according to the Canadian Institute for Health Education Canadians spent an average of $897 per person on drugs in 2008, and that this number increased by 16.5% over two years. Mr. Olive also lists several important facts that must be considered in the debate, perhaps the most important of which is his closing statement that it is time that Canadians played their part in reducing the health care burden on our society. He urges us that “it’s time we took more control of our health".
I would like to take this statement a step further. Not only should Canadians be taking more control of their health, they also need to take responsibility for their health spending. Many Canadians are under the misconception that 'someone else' is paying for their health care - be it their employer through an employee benefits plan, or the government through its public programs. Canadians need to wake up to the reality of the situation: in both of these scenarios, it is YOUR money that is being spent.
Employee benefits programs are part of your compensation. Your employer factors the cost of offering the program to you in to the equation when considering your salary. Simply put, the employer is taking a portion of your total compensation and putting in to a health benefits program that they select and manage on your behalf. Government health programs are the same - you pay taxes to the government and they decide how they are to be spent.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
So, how can you do as Olive suggests and take more control? Consider new options for your health benefits program that give you better access to preventative healthcare services. Products such as a Health Spending Account are an excellent vehicle for employers to give their employees more control over their healthcare services.
Take a look at your employer’s health benefits program today. Under many “traditional” insurance programs, coverage of preventative healthcare services have been reduced or eliminated to compensate for the rising costs of prescription drug usage. Meanwhile, the employers’ costs for these insurance programs continue to increase, in many cases by double-digit percentages, each year.
With a health spending account, your employer can deposit funds directly into an account that you can use to pay for the expected healthcare services that you need. This includes preventative care such as teeth cleaning, chiropractic and massage services, optometrists and more, limited only by the amount of funds in your account. By using this vehicle to cover your expected health costs, your employer can eliminate these services from the employee benefit package, and instead insure only the unexpected or catastrophic events. With this hybrid solution, you have more control over how you spend the money that your employer contributes to the program, and your employer can offer you more control while still providing protection for the unexpected.
If you are a business owner or are self-employed, you can achieve the same control over your health spending costs, while saving money on your plans by incorporating a Health Spending Account.
As the saying goes, ‘an ounce of protection is worth a pound of cure’. By using healthcare dollars to pay for sufficient maintenance, we can all stay healthier longer, stem the increasing drug costs that we are incurring as a society, and enable the government to spend OUR money on more services.
