How does fiscal decentralisation affect the development of a health system? Evidence from health care decentralisation in Europe can offer some insights to the question above. This paper addresses the effects of health care decentralisation in Europe, and reviews some of the key questions on the...

In the decade since the Doha Declaration was adopted, significant progress has been made in addressing problems associated with innovation and access to medicines, including through expanded financial support for procurement and distribution of treatments and vaccines and the establishment of...

Critics of the U.S. health care system frequently point to other countries as models for reform. They point out that many countries spend far less on health care than the United States yet seem to enjoy better health outcomes. The United States should follow the lead of those countries, the...

While both sides of the aisle agree that minimizing costs is a critical component in any health plan, few plans provide specifics to achieve that objective. Current programs provide or extend insurance coverage to the uninsured and those for whom procurement is not feasible, divest employers of...

OECD countries have used a variety of mechanisms for subsidizing healthcare for more than a century. These include tax preferences, direct subsidies, mandated health insurance programs, government-financed single-payer systems, and direct provision of healthcare services. In most cases,...

Nova Scotia faces a $89 billion fiscal burden – the future tax bill for increased healthcare costs over the next half-century – and should prepare now for the coming demographic squeeze, says a report released today from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Delivering Healthcare to an Aging...

OECD countries have used a variety of mechanisms for subsidizing healthcare for more than a century. This paper demonstrates that an electoral model of healthcare policies can explain why various combinations of healthcare programs have been adopted and why they are modified through time. The...

Health systems in Western countries are plagued by inefficiency and will likely require a substantial increase in the tax burden as populations age. Patients might also face a gradual decrease in the quality and scope of services. The organisational changes needed to drive costs down and...

The portfolio approach of financing drug development has been proposed as a financial innovation to improve the risk/return tradeoff of investment in drug development projects through the use of diversification and securitization. By investing in a sizable and well-diversified portfolio of novel...

This paper compares health care systems. It looks beyond normal academic, political, or journalistic rhetoric, by exactly sticking to facts, i.e. empirical data (in particular data provided by the WHO) and comprehensive case study analyses. The paper finds that a number of myths and common...