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The FAO’s estimates include the recent compensation deal achieved through binding arbitration with Ontario’s doctors that will add $1.5 billion to the health-care budget during its four-year life.

The release of the FAO report coincides with the recent announcement by Health Minister Christine Elliott that she is redrawing the system’s boundaries, creating a super agency that is supposed to reduce duplication, end gaps in service and make health care sustainable in the long run.

A major push to digital technology will be part of the system’s modernization, she said.

“We are still using faxes in health care — that’s not an efficient way to deliver services and to connect people to the care that they need,” she said.

The FAO report puts the current health-care budget at $61.3 billion, rising to a projected $73.3 billion in 2022-23.

The FAO report says the previous Liberal governments were able to limit health-care spending growth to 2.2% a year on average for a five year period ending in 2016-17.

After that, the average annual increase doubled to 4.4%.

With inflation, an ageing and growing population and promised investments in long-term care, the report estimates that health-care spending will rise by 4.6% a year on average between now and 2022-23.

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The average annual health-care costs for a 50-year-old Ontarian is $3,100, growing to $6,400 for a 65-year-old and $22,000 for an 85-year, the FAO said.

The report noted the wait list for long-term care spots has jumped to 32,835, filling hospital beds with patients that might be better and more inexpensively cared for elsewhere.

Emergency room wait times have grown, partly due to lack of timely access to primary care and the ongoing opioid crisis, the report says.

aartuso@postmedia.com