This article presents research demonstrating that the right to health plays different roles in different types of health systems. In high-income countries with tax-funded health systems, we usually encounter a lack of an enforceable right to heath. In contrast, rights play a more significant...

Choice is often touted as a means for change within health care systems. Yet 'choice', in this context, takes at least three distinct forms: choice between providers within a publicly funded health care system; choice between competing insurers within a universal plan; and, lastly, choice as...

In this paper, we provide a brief forensic of the SARS crisis in Toronto and analyze the effectiveness of Canada's health care system in response to that crisis. We conclude that it is difficult to draw concrete conclusions about the cause and effect of the SARS epidemic. Nevertheless, there is...

While political realities make it quite unlikely the United States will move to a single-payer system, there may nevertheless be lessons to be drawn from Canada's experience as well as from the experience of other nations. Canadian Medicare is presented as both a savior and a foe to American...

Blurring of public/private divide is occurring in different ways around the world, with differential effects in terms of access and equity. In Canada, one pathway towards privatization has received particular attention: duplicative private insurance, allowing those with the financial means to...

In their efforts to sustain publicly funded health care, governments are increasingly deciding that some drugs are not sufficiently beneficial to merit public funding. For example, the Ontario government has elected not to fund bortezomib. The administration of such cancer drugs requires nursing...

In both Canada and Japan court challenges are underway to allow a greater role for private payment.This article explains how Canadian courts to date have misunderstood the very different roles private payment (specifically private health insurance) plays across different health care systems. I...