Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
In October 2020, Canada's Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer released a report titled: Cost Estimate for Bill C-7 "Medical Assistance in Dying." The report was created for Canada's parliament during the Bill C-7 debate. Bill C-7 (among other changes) expanded euthanasia to people who are not terminally ill.
The report concluded that Bill C-7, if passed, would enable Canada's healthcare system would save $149 million in 2021.
At the time of the report I published an article stating:
I estimate that the numbers in the report are low for two reasons. The first reason is that we will have more euthanasia deaths than predicted. The second reason is that people with months and years to live will be dying by euthanasia leading to cost savings far beyond predictions.
These cost savings will not only be related to the medical system but also to the cost of social services. People on a disability pension, or people living on welfare, as well as the cost savings related to retirement benefits.
Sadly, some people will point to the cost savings as a positive reason to promote euthanasia.
There has not been another published report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), but I believe that the estimates by the PBO were low. For instance, the PBO estimated that in 2021 there would be 6,465 Track 1 MAiD deaths and 1164 Track 2 MAiD deaths when in fact there were 9,869 Track 1 MAiD deaths and 223 Track 2 MAiD deaths.
Based on the cost saving data from the PBO, euthanasia deaths accounted for at least $144.5 million dollars saved by Canada's healthcare system in 2021 ($132.65 million saved from Track 1 deaths and $11.85 million saved for Track 2 deaths).
The PBO did not estimate the amount of social service cost savings from euthanasia of people with disabilities or people living on welfare or people collecting retirement benefits. We know that some people who died by euthanasia were living with chronic conditions and would have had years, not months left to live.
What about the healthcare savings in 2022 and 2023?
Since I don't have the data to estimate the increase in the base cost of euthanasia I will stick to the conservative estimate by using the PBO report from October 2020.
The 2022 Annual Report reported that there were 13,241 reported MAiD deaths with 12,788 Track 1 deaths and 463 Track 2 deaths.
Based on the conservative PBO data, in 2022 euthanasia deaths accounted for at least $196.5 million saved by Canada's healthcare system ($171.8 million saved from Track 1 deaths and $24.7 million saved from Track 2 deaths).
Once again, the $196.5 million does not include increased healthcare costs related to inflation and other factors.
The 2023 annual report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada is not yet released but based on provincial data, that EPC collected I estimate that there were 15,300 MAiD deaths in 2023. Since I do not have all of the data I will estimate the Track 2 deaths as 3.5% of all MAiD deaths, as in 2022. According to my 2023 estimates, there were approximately 14,765 Track 1 MAiD deaths and 535 Track 2 MAiD deaths (there were likely more Track 2 deaths).
Based on October 2020 PBO report, in 2023 there was at least $227 million saved by Canada's healthcare system ($198.5 million saved from Track 1 deaths and $28.5 Million saved from Track 2 deaths).
Canada's healthcare system has saved at least $568 million since January 1, 2021 not including savings to social service costs and retirement benefits.
The actual amount is likely higher than $568 million. I am convinced that the original PBO data under-estimated the savings associated with killing Canadians and I did not include inflation data in my estimates for 2022 and 2023.
Euthanasia is not about freedom choice and autonomy but rather it abandons people at their time of need.
No amount of money can justify killing people.
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