What is Canada's healthcare system funded by?

Canadian healthcare is funded primarily through federal and provincial taxes and delivered through provincial single-payer systems that meet the standards of the federal Canada Health Act of 1984. The Act sets out five conditions a provincial system must meet to receive its share of the federal Canada Health Transfer (CHT): public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability, and accessibility. The CHT was $52.1 billion in 2024-2025.

Each provincial and territorial government runs its own insurance plan, branded as MSP (British Columbia), AHC (Alberta), OHIP (Ontario), RAMQ (Quebec), MCP (Newfoundland and Labrador), and so on. The plans cover medically necessary hospital and physician services without point-of-care charges to patients. Prescription drugs outside hospitals, dental care, vision care, and mental-health services from psychologists are not covered by the Canada Health Act and are typically paid through private or employer insurance, although coverage gaps have driven recent policy changes.

Healthcare spending reached about $344 billion in 2023, equal to roughly 12.5 per cent of Canadian GDP. Of every health-care dollar spent, hospitals account for about 25 per cent, physicians 15 per cent, drugs 14 per cent, and other (long-term care, public health, capital, administration) the remainder. About 70 per cent of total health spending comes from public sources, the rest from private insurance and out-of-pocket payments. Per-capita health spending is around $9,000 per year.

Federal policy expanded in the 2020s. The Canadian Dental Care Plan, announced in the 2023 federal budget and rolled out from December 2023 through 2025, covers more than nine million uninsured Canadians. The federal Pharmacare framework began with the National Strategy for Drugs for Rare Diseases (2023) and expanded under the 2024 Pharmacare Act to cover diabetes medications and contraception in participating provinces. Long-term care, primary-care reform, and Indigenous-controlled health services remain active policy areas.