We analyse – theoretically and empirically – the effect of hospital mergers on waiting times in healthcare markets where prices are fixed. Using a spatial modelling framework where patients choose provider based on travelling distance and waiting times, we show that the effect is...

In this model we use delay as a tool to improve income redistribution. Delay makes people with the highest opportunity cost of waiting leave the public health care market. If these, as we assume, are the ones at the higher end of the income distribution, they are made to pay twice for health...

Objective: To study cross-national inequalities in mortality of adults and of children aged 5 years using a novel approach, with clustering techniques to stratify countries into mortality groups (better-off, worse-off, mid-level) and to examine risk factors associated with inequality. Design,...

Background: A world divided by health inequalities poses ethical challenges for global health. International and national responses to health disparities must be rooted in ethical values about health and its distribution; this is because ethical claims have the power to motivate, delineate...

Acute respiratory infections and diarrhea, has been globally identified, as poising major threats to survival of children under the age of five. This is also true for India, where these two diseases, have been the major causes behind infant mortality both in 1997 as well as 1998. Prevention as...

Racial and ethnic disparities in health care outcomes are well-documented. Efforts to reduce these inequities have not succeeded in achieving a substantial reduction. The disease management model, which emerged during the era of managed care, is gaining support as an alternative approach to...

Electronic health record (EHR) system holds great promise in transforming healthcare. Existing empirical literature typically focused on its adoption, and found mixed evidence on whether EHR improves care. The federal initiative for meaningful use (MU) of EHR aims to maximize the potential of...

There are some important reasons why low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) may choose to make greater use of competition law and policy to reduce the cost of treatment. First, multilateral trade rules allow substantial flexibility in the development and application of competition law and...

Reforms to reduce the fiscal burden of Canada’s public healthcare costs should preserve the core value of equal access, while evolving away from universality. Michael Bliss, Professor Emeritus of the University of Toronto, reviews the history of Canada’s healthcare system and draws lessons...