Category Health economics
Is Health Care Reform Working?
Health care reform in Canada in the wake of the Romanow Royal Commission and the 2004 Health Accord has often been described as a story of missed opportunity with the increases in federal transfer spending not accompanied by desired results. As the review of the 2004 Health Accord by the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, […]
Health System Efficiency: Saving Money Can Save Lives Too
It turns out that having a more efficient health care system is not just about sustainability or bean counting – it also can save lives.
Generic Drug Pricing Reforms
Pharmaceutical spending and policy is an important aspect of provincial government health plans. The following is a guest post on generic drug policy by Aidan Hollis, Professor, Department of Economics, at the University of Calgary and Paul Grootendorst, Associate Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, at theUniversity of Toronto. Enjoy!
Living Longer…and Longer….
The OECD Health Data 2013 final update numbers are out and for the first time average life expectancy at birth in the OECD countries (numbers for 2011) exceeds 80 years at 80.1. This represents a gain of ten years since 1970. When life expectancy for men and women at age 65 is examined, there are […]
The Health Care Cost Curve: Bending if Necessary but not Necessarily Bending?
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) has put out their 2013 National Health Expenditure Report and the big story seems to be that the numbers show that public sector health care costs in Canada are declining. Real per capita public sector health care spending (in 1997 dollars and I used the Health Care Implicit […]
Are More Physicians Preferred to Less?
Physician spending has been highlighted as one of the fastest growing expenditure categories in Canadian health care spending. The increase in supply of physicians, rising fees and the increasing utilization of health care per capita are recognized as important and intertwined factors driving expenditure for physician services. Despite perceptions of a shortage of physicians, the […]
Explaining the Health Spending Slowdown
Canadian Institute for Health Information numbers show that there is a moderation in health expenditure growth underway. From a growth rate of 6.1 percent in 2010, the CIHI estimates growth in total nominal health spending of 3.9 percent in 2011 and 3.4 percent in 2012. Over the same period, the health expenditure to GDP ratio […]
Revealed preferences for longevity
Smoking takes 10 years off your life - but is this a sufficient reason to give up smoking? Why is a long life a better life? The United Nations Human Development Index uses life expectancy as a measure of life quality because: a long life is valuable in itself and… various indirect benefits (such as adequate […]
Diagnosing Hospitals
CBC’s Fifth Estate has put together a ranking of Canadian hospitals and the results are out. They provide a new online tool that grades hospitals on key performance indicators reported by hospitals and justify it as a call for more accountability and transparency in the Canadian health care system. Given the inevitable complexity of ranking […]
Can government intervention ever be sufficiently sensitive?
In South Africa the signs of AIDS are subtle, but ever present. Dispensers with free condoms in every university washroom. A red AIDS ribbon painted on the wall of the Knysna hospital. Another on the entrance to the Muizenberg cemetery, where wooden crosses and flowers in plastic bottles mark the resting places of those who […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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