What is the minimum cost to maintain health ?

That is the question which the MDD, with a group of Montreal community agencies, answered in the late 1950s. Since then, the MDD proceeds to a yearly update of the cost of a minimum basket of goods and services to maintain health.

Identification of Needs

In its publication "Budgeting for Basic Needs and Budgeting for Minimum Adequate Standard of Living", the MDD lists:

• eight "basic" needs: shelter, water tax, food, clothing, personal care, household supplies, utilities, and heating;
• ten additional needs to ensure a "minimum adequate standard of living": telephone, transportation, personal allowances, newspaper, minor repairs, entertainment, leisure, religion, replacement of small items, and school supplies.

Updating

For each of these 18 basic needs, a list of goods and services is established according to age, sex and physiological conditions. Once a year, the MDD verifies the price of these goods and services, thus updating the cost of basic needs for health maintenance in the publication "Budgeting for Basic Needs and Budgeting for Minimum Adequate Standard of Living" .

Purpose

The usefulness of this practical research is multiple. From the data published each year under the title "Budgeting for Basic Needs and Budgeting for Minimum Adequate Standard of Living"s, it is possible to :

• establish the cost of basic needs for any type of household, an important tool in budget counselling;
• make comparisons with other measures such as the various poverty cut-offs as well as the social assistance benefits;
• build the basis of a plea for the betterment of the living conditions of impoverished people.

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