All provincial governments in Canada reimburse some portion of the cost of out-of-hospital prescription drugs consumed by groups such as the elderly or those with low incomes. A characteristic shared by all programs in recent years has been rapid growth in expenditures. In an effort to control...

The purpose of this investigation is to present results for several checks on the integrity and consistency of the Ontario Health Survey data. This information can guide the interpretation of estimates and statistical inference from OHS data. Several consistency checks were devised to...

Pharmaceuticals are the focus of increased scrutiny by public insurers. Between 1985 and 1998, drug expenditure in Canada increased by 226% - approximately double the increase in total expenditure on health. Prescribed and non-prescribed drugs now comprise the second-largest share of health care...

In 1997, the Canadian National Forum on Health recommended creation of a national pharmacare program, the key elements of which would include: (a) universal first-dollar coverage for medically necessary medications; (b) comprehensive information support tools for managers, clinicians, and...

This paper employs cohort analysis to examine the relative importance of different factors in explaining changes in the number of hours spent in direct patient care by Canadian general/ family practitioners (GP/FPs) over the period 1982 to 2002. Cohorts are defined by year of graduation from...

Canada’s restrictions on the role of private health insurance for publicly insured physician and hospital services are unique among countries with universal, publicly funded health care systems. Pressure is mounting in Canada, however, to loosen these restrictions and create a parallel system...