Author: Nadeem Esmail Canada’s provincial health-care systems have long suffered from a policy-driven confluence of high spending and poor performance. While some provinces have attempted minor reforms, all have largely remained committed to the status quo of monopolistic health care dominated by government. This lack of provincial policy innovation is at least partly driven by the federal government’s involvement in provincial policy making through the Canada Health Act and substantial cash transfers tied to provincial compliance. This federal constraint on provincial experimentation must b ..read more

Authors: Mackenzie MoirBacchus Barua In Canada, since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increasing reliance on private clinics contracted to deliver publicly funded surgeries – despite the controversy these arrangements produce. Australia’s health-care system outranks Canada on a range of performance indicators while characterized by a deep integration between its private and public sectors. In 2021/22 in Australia, 41% of all recorded care episodes occurred in private hospitals. Of the total number of episodes of elective care, 58.6% occurred in private hospitals. For elective admis ..read more

Authors: Mackenzie MoirBacchus Barua Each year, the Fraser Institute surveys physicians across twelve specialties and the ten provinces in order to document the queues for visits to specialists and for diagnostic and surgical procedures in Canada. Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2023 Report reports the results of this year’s survey. In 2023, physicians report a median wait time of 27.7 weeks between a referral from a general practitioner and receipt of treatment. This represents the longest delay in the survey’s history and is 198% longer than the 9.3 weeks Canadian ..read more

Authors: Mackenzie MoirBacchus Barua Comparing the performance of different countries’ health-care systems provides an opportunity for policy makers and the general public to determine how well Canada’s health-care system is performing relative to its international peers. Overall, the data examined suggest that, although Canada’s is one of the most expensive universal-access health-care system in the OECD, its performance is modest to poor. This study uses a “value for money approach” to compare the cost and performance of 30 universal health-care systems in high-income countries. The level ..read more

Author: Nadeem Esmail Mental illness is widely recognized to impact a considerable proportion of the population, perhaps affecting as many as one in five Canadians in any given year (Mental Health Commission of Canada, 2013). The prevalence of mental illness, combined with the now well-understood impacts on employment, productivity, and social engagement for ill individuals, helps to explain the increased attention this area of health care has received in recent years and the numerous calls for additional tax-funded expenditures on mental health care. While much attention has been paid to th ..read more

Author: Yanick Labrie Long wait times for surgical treatments have been a persistent issue in Canada and have worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic (Moir and Barua, 2022; Labrie, 2023). In an effort to tackle the long backlog of elective surgeries, various provincial governments have in recent months announced plans to partner with private surgical clinics (Daflos, 2023; Ferguson, 2023; Smith, 2023). Although such public-private collaborations have proven successful in the past (MacKinnon, 2016), debate rages in Canada about the potential to improve access to surgical care through increased p ..read more

Authors: Nathaniel LiMilagros PalaciosBacchus Barua Summary Canadians often misunderstand the true cost of our public health care system. This occurs partly because Canadians do not incur direct expenses for their use of health care, and partly because Canadians cannot readily determine the value of their contribution to public health care insurance. In 2023, preliminary estimates suggest the average payment for public health care insurance ranges from $5,373 to $17,039 for six common Canadian family types, depending on the type of family. Between 1997 and 2023, the cost of public health ca ..read more

Author: Kristina M.L. Acri, née Lybecker In May 2017, Health Canada proposed an amendment to Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) regulations governing patented medicines. On December 23, 2021, for the fourth time, it was announced that changes to the PMPRB regime, contained in pending amendments to the Patented Medicines Regulations, would be delayed. The amendments that would have formed the basis for new PMPRB Guidelines would not have gone into effect until July 1, 2022. Then, on April 14, 2022, the proposed Amendments were changed again. Health Canada announced that they will b ..read more

Authors: Nathaniel LiMilagros PalaciosBacchus Barua Summary Canadians often misunderstand the true cost of our public health care system. This oc­curs partly because Canadians do not incur direct expenses for their use of health care, and partly because Canadians cannot readily deter­mine the value of their contribution to public health care insurance. In 2022, preliminary estimates suggest the average payment for public health care insur­ance ranges from $4,907 to $15,917 for six com­mon Canadian family types, depending on the type of family. Between 1997 and 2022, the cost of public healt ..read more

Authors: Bacchus BaruaMackenzie Moir Comprehensive measures of performance indicate that Canada routinely lags behind its international peers on key metrics of how its health-care system performs—despite ranking amongst the most expensive universal health-care systems in the developed world. It is, therefore, unsurprising that a growing proportion of Canadians seem open to the possibility of fundamental reform of health care in Canada. However, major hurdles exist as a result of faulty perceptions about how other countries with universal health-care insurance coverage provide and finance the ..read more