I review the key issues that arise in financing health care delivery. I begin by documenting the key features of health care markets that make financing so central in this sector, such as the skewed and unpredictable nature of health care spending and market failures in health care delivery. I...

This paper is part of a series that examines the way health services are funded and delivered in other nations. The nations profiled all aim to achieve the noble goal of Canada’s health care system: access to high quality care regardless of ability to pay. How they organize to achieve that...

We investigate the density of private physicians in a two-tiered health care system, i.e., one with co-existing public and private health care providers. In particular, we analyze how the densities of private and public suppliers of outpatient health care (general practitioners and specialists)...

Health policy makers in developing, low income countries are often faced with difficult choices and tradeoffs in allocating the rather limited resources at their disposal. This paper analyzes the varied approaches taken by the Governments of China and India which resulted in differential levels...

Canadian provincial healthcare systems fare poorly compared to peer countries according to new research from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Reality Bites: How Canada's Healthcare System Compares to its International Peers,” authors Colin Busby, Ramya Muthukaran and Aaron Jacobs examine how the...

Recent data show wide disparity between Japan and the United States in the effectiveness of their health care systems. Japan spends close to the lowest percentage of its gross domestic product on health care among OECD countries, the United States spends the highest, yet life expectancies in...

The paper is an ex post, critical contribution to the research conducted by the World Health Organisation on healthcare financing. The issue of national healthcare systems’ efficiency is addressed, through building a model of change in healthcare quality, in response to changes in healthcare...