Health reform has been talked about enough
The need to reform Canada’s health-care systems has long been a hot topic of debate. After all, Canada is an easy target: It has one of the highest price tags among countries with universal health systems in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, but its performance has lagged for years. The effect of the…
Numerous studies prove that Canada’s health-care system is inferior to similar systems in almost every way
As we enter the year 2022, most Canadians will have lived their entire lives under the shibboleth that says we have the best health-care system in the world. Our beloved medicare is universal in scope, free of charge and offers equal access to all. What country could beat that? As it turns out, most countries…
The well-being of patients is at risk
By Krystle Wittevrongel and Maria Lily Shaw Montreal Economic Institute A highly-contested drug-price reform is set to come into effect in Canada in January 2022. Critics of the major overhaul, including patient groups, doctors, and academics, are hopeful that the new federal cabinet will take their concerns to heart and rather than stifle pharmaceutical innovation,…
Canada ranks dead last in timely care, with the longest waitlists
The coronavirus hit Canada in March 2020. By the time that first wave had subsided in the summer, hundreds of thousands of scheduled surgeries had been postponed. But before that huge backlog could be reduced, a second and then a third wave of the virus struck, increasing the backlog by thousands more. Adding to the…
Health-care costs for seniors are rising. Privatized care can help manage this demand surge
By Gauree Chawla Research associate Frontier Centre for Public Policy COVID-19 has left a gaping hole in Quebec’s health-care system. Lack of nursing personnel, testing shortages, overflooding hospitals and postponed surgeries have turned Quebec’s health care into complete chaos. “We must invest in the health-care system, which is in the process of crumbling,” argues Quebec…
On average, drug approvals take three months longer in Canada than in the U.S. and one month longer than in Europe
By Maria Lily Shaw and Krystle Wittevrongel Montreal Economic Institute The past year has shown us beyond the shadow of a doubt that human ingenuity is a match for the greatest of challenges. The rapid development and mass production of several COVID-19 vaccines are proof of our remarkable capacity for innovation. Pharmaceutical innovation, one of…
How long will Canadian patients put up with substandard treatment?
As the third wave of the COVID recedes in Canada, watch for the resumption of an old debate about the impact on patients of delayed procedures and treatments. On one side, hospitals, medical associations, and labour unions will point to the many patients who endured cancelled care. On the other, with apologies to Burke, economists…
COVID-19 has exacerbated the problem but it’s not the primary cause of our wait-time crisis
By Mackenzie Moir and Bacchus Barua The Fraser Institute With a full year of life with COVID-19 behind us, and the hope of mass vaccination on the horizon, it’s time for policy-makers to refocus some of their attention on our other health-care crisis – long wait times for medical care. Although the number of patients…
12 months in, health-care system still can't provide Canadians with timely care while dealing with COVID-19
It has been a year since the world was brought to its knees by a microscopic particle known as COVID-19. Since then, the virus has taken the lives of more than 22,000 Canadians and infected another 940,000. But those are just the numbers that show up on media screens and government paperwork. The real human…
Here’s what needs to be done
The pandemic has presented us with many new difficulties that we’re struggling to manage. It has also pushed to the forefront some long-standing challenges that we’ve not dealt with in the past and have become even more problematic in the time of COVID-19. One ongoing problem that the pandemic has made much more serious and…