TC medical fees

[Skymark]

FYI, Transport has increased the medical fee. 2.2% per year It's now 56.21

[challenger_nami]

Surprise!!!!

[7ECA]

Somewhat old news, but the Trudeau Liberals did authorize all Federal Departments to increase their service fees on a yearly basis going forward - due to inflation; or some other horseshit argument...

Apparently, it's now more expensive for the TC Dr. to check to make sure the CAME stamped your medical report.

[ahramin]

Canada Inflation Rate 1993-2020.jpg (138.96 KiB) Viewed 976 times

That's the inflation rate for CAD 1993-2020.

This is the monetary policy set by the Bank of Canada (our central bank). If you are interested in why modern economies are run this way you are welcome to go get educated but even without any understanding of the theory, it should be obvious to everyone that the price of things is going to go up about 2% a year. If a dollar is worth 2% less every year, then the price has to go up in order to collect the same amount of revenue. Think about it, if the price never goes up but the value of the dollar goes down 2% per year by design, what happens in 20 years?

[photofly]

the "inflation rate" is a measure of an average "cost of living", based on a basket of items, and not a measure of the "cost of government". There's no necessity for any public service to cost any particular amount. The idea that a dollar is "worth less" every year is facile, as is the idea that government services "should" increase in price by some artificial measure each year. An iphone cost $600 in 2010. Does that mean it should have cost only $331 in 1980? How much did it cost to fly to a European destination on Air Canada in 1957? How does that compare with what it costs now?

[ahramin]

Yes, the inflation rate is a measure of "cost of living", and that includes the cost of some government services. For example in calculating the inflation rate things like postal services, public transport, and health care services are included.

I wasn't speaking about how it is measured, I am speaking about how it is controlled. Inflation is targeted at 2% per year, forever. Pretending that this isn't true because some things have become cheaper and then insisting that the gov'mint should pretend inflation doesn't exist is ... well ... let's just say "facile".

[complexintentions]

Inflation, like all economics, is highly subjective - definitely not science. The concept of "substitution" used in calculating the CPI is a prime example.

I actually don't have a problem with price increases in line with inflation. Agree with ahramin that it's silly to get upset about.

The whole concept of the TC medical fee, well that's a whole other story, but covered ad infinitum elsewhere. One of the bigger ripoffs in Canadian taxation, and that's a crowded field.

[photofly]

If the price of a pilot medical isn’t in the basket of products used to calculate an inflation rate, then increasing the price of a medical has no effect on inflation; it cannot therefore play any part in controlling inflation.

[complexintentions]

If the price of a pilot medical isn’t in the basket of products used to calculate an inflation rate, then increasing the price of a medical has no effect on inflation; it cannot therefore play any part in controlling inflation.

You're confusing measuring inflation with actual inflationary causes. Inflation isn't just a measure of the "cost of living", it's more generally a measurement of price levels in an economy. Government stats-takers will try and measure that for consumers, but they have a whole lot of tricks to present the official rate in whatever way they see fit.

Right now we're (as in, the world) is in far more danger of deflation than inflation. Even with the massive money printing. Interest rates going to zero and negative is due to fear of deflation: it's an attempt to stimulate the economy by making borrowing cheap. And the world's central banks are pretty much out of bullets. The US Fed just signalled they aren't planning to raise rates at all soon. That's the opposite of worrying about inflation.

All of which is why it is a bit horseshit for the Canadian government to claim fee increases are necessary to keep pace with inflation.

Screen Shot 2020-08-28 at 10.33.42 PM.JPG (49.85 KiB) Viewed 917 times

[ahramin]

If the price of a pilot medical isn’t in the basket of products used to calculate an inflation rate, then increasing the price of a medical has no effect on inflation; it cannot therefore play any part in controlling inflation.

I think you need to look up the difference between inflation and core inflation. It's not an obvious distinction but it would help with the discussion.

However, if you think the price of things is how the BOC controls inflation then I really don't know where to start so I'll leave it there.

[photofly]

If the price of a pilot medical isn’t in the basket of products used to calculate an inflation rate, then increasing the price of a medical has no effect on inflation; it cannot therefore play any part in controlling inflation.

However, if you think the price of things is how the BOC controls inflation then I really don't know where to start so I'll leave it there.

Quite clearly, I don't for one instant think it is. But these are your words, written in the context of an increase in the price of a medical:

I wasn't speaking about how it is measured, I am speaking about how it is controlled. Inflation is targeted at 2% per year, forever.

There's no connection - there should be no connection - between a government inflation target, and a government decision to raise prices. So I'm not sure why the government inflation target is relevant in this discussion. Why is it relevant?

When you have an open market for something, some kind of consensus on price is reached - the cost of a half dozen eggs, for instance. As producer costs rise, the retail price of the product rises in some kind of equlibrium. But there's no "market" price for a medical exam, which is why the price is a stupidly artificial $50. Increasing an artificial price for an artificial service provided by government by some cockamamy retail price index that has to do with the cost of eggs, elecricity, postage and gasoline, to get some new artificial price, is idiocy.

[Skymark]

Well this got off the rails quickly.

[photofly]

There are rails?