In this paper we review and extend an earlier, in-depth analysis of the effects of users ccharges. The present paper assesses whether experience and published literature in the years since 1979 alter any of the (largely negative) conclusions of the earlier study concerning the ability of direct...

The year 1981 appears, in retrospect, to have been something of a turning point in the evolution of the Canadian health care system. It was not obvious at the time -- the year did not, 1961 or 1971, mark the completion of a clearly defined stage of public coverage or, like 1978, a major shift in...

In this paper we examine some of the most frequently heard arguments for user charges and look at what evidence there is for claims and counter-claims that are often made.

Our system of Universal public insurance for health care is by a considerable magin Canada's most successful and popular puiblic program. Our system works, and compared to most other systems works well, while the American alternative does not.

Control of health care costs is often portrayed as a struggle between external, "natural" forces pushing costs up and individuals, groups, and societies trying to resists the inevitable.

While concerns over escalation in health care costs are virtually universal in the industrialized world, the forms of policy response, and their relative success, have been quite variable.

In this paper we propose a conplexe framework to present a wide range of relationships among the determinants of health.

Since the late 1960s, concerns over the escalating costs of health care have been expressed with increasing vigor on both sides of the Canada-United States border. This is in sharp contrast with the previous 20 years, during which the principal policy concern was to "meet needs" by finding ways...

In general, one may infer with some confidence that any cost containment policy conmdemned as ineffective by those whose incomes it is intended to contain, but described as effective by those who are responsible for paying the bills, is almost certainly "working" -- at least to contain costs.

This exposes issues about canada's public health insurance programs.