H E A L T H C A R E   P O L I C Y

Canadians often tell themselves that they enjoy “the best healthcare system in the world.” Unfortunately, the evidence doesn’t support these claims. Despite very high per-capita spending levels, Canada’s healthcare system underperforms in comparison to a number of European countries, including the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Sweden. In many European countries, wait times for healthcare services are much shorter than in Canada. AIMS research focuses on identifying and measuring the performance gaps between Canada and some of its peer nations and on identifying policy strategies and global best practices that can help reduce wait times and improve patient care in Canada.

AIMS research in the healthcare sector also focuses on the development of policy ideas that can help strengthen the role of consumers themselves within the healthcare system. Our work examines global practices and policy ideas that provide patients with more access to information about their own health status and treatment options, enabling them to be active, leading participants in their own team of health care providers.

POLICY PAPERS & OP-ED COMMENTARIES

 

The Non-Sustainability of Health Care Financing Under the Medicare Model

Author: Brett J. Skinner The Non-Sustainability of Health Care Financing Under the Medicare Model argues that, without real substantial reform, we are not going to escape our place as the big spenders on health care any time soon. A dramatically aging population, the introduction of new and ever more expensive ...
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/ / Healthcare, Policy Papers

Medicare and User Fees

Authors: Carl Irvine and Dr. David Gratzer Medicare and User Fees seeks to provide a second opinion about the practicality and implications of introducing some form of cost sharing to the Canadian health care system. Numerous studies, including one of the largest social science experiments in history, suggest that user fees ...
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/ / Healthcare, Policy Papers

Definitely NOT The Romanow Report

Authors: Brian Lee Crowley, Brian Ferguson, David Zitner, Brett J. Skinner Roy Romanow, head of the Royal Commission on the future of health care, has made it clear that he will recommend not only retaining, but even expanding the centrally planned, government monopoly model of health care in Canada. He ...
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/ / Healthcare, Policy Papers

Doctors Have to Make a Living Too

Author: Brian Ferguson Doctors Have to Make a Living Too: The Microeconomcs of Physician Practice delves into the misconceptions about cost drivers in the health care field. Looking at the arguments supporting two common cost cutting and service expanding ideas - the introduction of non-physician practitioners (NPP) or the introduction ...
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/ / Healthcare, Policy Papers

Issues in the Demand for Medical Care

Author: Brian Ferguson Issues in the Demand for Medical Care: Can Consumers and Doctors be Trusted to Make the Right Choices? 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 ...
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/ / Healthcare, Policy Papers
MEDIA MENTIONS

 

Maritime Morning: AIMS’ upcoming health conference

AIMS will host a ground breaking conference Nov. 15, Open for Business: Creating Wealth Through Better Health. In this News 95.7 interview with Jodi Morgan, Charles Cirtwill discusses how the ...
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Health care for Nova Scotia: It’s about government, not patients

While Nova Scotians languish in emergency departments, wait patiently to see medical specialists, grieve over injuries from health system mistakes, and suffer while waiting for surgery, the Nova Scotia government ...
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Beyond Face-to-Face Doctors Visits

Beyond Face-to-Face Doctors Visits In response to the recent federal budget, cash-strapped Nova Scotia Premier John Hamm despondently claimed that his province may soon have to start imposing user fees ...
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Time to consider health-care lodgers

Back in the day, when things were tight, people helped cover the mortgage payments by renting out the spare bedroom to a boarder. Well, the country’s health-care providers are under ...
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