Building a National Health System: Learning from other countries’ mistakes
Based on the Annual Economic Lecture of the Cyprus Economic Society and the Bank of Cyprus, presented by AIMS Fellow in Health Care Economics Brian Ferguson.
The potential of private sector health care in Canada
The latest background paper from the Canadian Health Care Consensus Group suggests fixing our health care system woes requires more flexibility and an examination of more options.
Drug Re-Importation in North America and Europe
The United States cannot solve its "Medicare donut hole" through Canada’s back door. That’s the conclusion of this health care paper by Brian Ferguson, AIMS Fellow in Health Care Economics and a professor of Economics at the University of Guelph. The paper points out that as Americans head into an election year, drug re-importation will likely become an issue, particularly with several states actively promoting the re-importation of prescription drugs from Canada as a method to control Medicare costs.
Guest Commentary: Has the Supreme Court of Canada Doomed Medicare?
Explanations of the Supreme Court of Canada decision on health care hit the blog circuit as fast as commentators hit the traditional media. AIMS' Fellow in Health Care Economics, Brian Ferguson, runs his own blog, "A Canadian Econoview". In this commentary on his blog, Ferguson lays out the reaction to and the reality of the Superior Court's decision.
Alice in Borderland
The idea that Americans should be able to buy their prescription drugs in Canada, either in person or, more importantly, over the Internet, has been gaining favour with US politicians for some months now. It’s to the point where a number of states have either passed, or are considering passing, legislation that they believe will make this kind of cross-border shopping legal. This commentary explains why, if re-importation ever becomes law in the US, American prices will not fall, while in Canada we will either find drug prices rising to US levels, or supplies being restricted and shortages developing.
Alice in Borderland: Why Canadians Cannot Afford to be Complacent About American Drug Re-importation
The idea that Americans should be able to buy their prescription drugs in Canada, either in person or, more importantly, over the Internet, has been gaining favour with US politicians for some months now. It’s to the point where a number of states have either passed, or are considering passing, legislation that they believe will make this kind of cross-border shopping legal. This commentary explains why, if re-importation ever becomes law in the US, American prices will not fall, while in Canada we will either find drug prices rising to US levels, or supplies being restricted and shortages developing.
Expenditure on Medical Care in Canada
Brian Ferguson, Guelph University health economist and author says, medicare’s much-heralded success at cost control is illusory. Simply put, the introduction of medicare did not introduce a period of health care cost control in Canadian health spending.
Issues in the Demand for Medical Care
Professor Brian S. Ferguson explores the concept of physician induced demand, one of the fundamental underpinnings of the policy where government limits enrolment in medical schools and artificially limits the number of Canadian physicians.
Doctors Have to Make a Living Too
Doctors Have to Make a Living Too: The Microeconomcs of Physician Practice delves into the misconceptions about cost drivers in the health care field.
Profits and the Hospital Sector
Brian S. Ferguson explores the anti-for-profit bias in the public debate on health reform and concludes that there is, in fact, a considerable amount of evidence to show that there is no systematic differences in efficiency between for-profit and not-for-profit hospitals.