Public health-care costs hit $21,115 for Canadian families in 2026, report shows

“Canadians pay a substantial amount of money for public health care through a variety of taxes — even if we don’t pay directly for medical services,” said Esmail.

The $21,115 figure applies to a two-parent, two-child household earning an average income of $202,885. The study, which draws on the Fraser Institute’s Canadian Tax Simulator and Statistics Canada data, also estimates costs for other household types: couples without children face a public health-care bill of approximately $19,225, single Canadians pay around $6,464, and single parents with one child pay roughly $6,966.

The numbers become even more striking when broken down by income. Canadians in the lowest 10 percent of earners — with average incomes of $17,654 — contribute approximately $637 annually. Those in the median income decile, earning an average of $88,572, pay an estimated $8,644. At the top end, the highest-earning 10 percent of Canadian families contribute approximately $66,350 toward public health care in 2026, reflecting Canada’s progressive tax structure.

These are not out-of-pocket costs in the conventional sense — no invoice arrives. But they represent a significant and growing portion of the tax bills that clients bring to their advisors each year, and Wealth Professional has previously reported on the rising trajectory of this figure, which stood at more than $19,000 for the average family in 2025.

Health-care costs are outpacing income growth

Since 1997 — the earliest year for which Fraser Institute data are available — the inflation-adjusted cost of public health-care insurance for the average Canadian family has risen by 278.8 per cent, according to the report.