Op-Eds
Published in The Hamilton Spectator on January 17, 2015
By: Åke Blomqvist and Colin Busby
Åke Blomqvist is an Adjunct Research Professor at Carleton University and Health Policy Scholar at the C.D. Howe Institute, where Colin Busby is a Senior Policy Analyst.
Voucher-based cost-sharing system would tailor care to seniors’ needs
The blocked hospital bed crisis in Hamilton — and elsewhere in Canada — has peaked this flu season, but it has been brewing for many years. It shows what happens when a fiscally constrained government is confronted with an aging population that places growing demands on hospitals and other institutions and people who supply care. One necessary part of the solution…
Published in the Telegraph-Journal on January 16, 2015
By: William Robson, Colin Busby, and Aaron Jacobs
Colin Busby William Robson and Aaron Jacobs are all part of the C.D. Howe Institute.
New Brunswick may be the Canadian province that has shown the most willingness to face up to its demographic challenges. Reforming pensions is never easy, but New Brunswick’s recent moves stand out for their clear-sightedness about the problems ahead. So perhaps New Brunswick can lead the way in the next major demographic challenge facing Canada: the squeeze rising healthcare costs will put on the provincial budget, and the next generation.
Like other Canadian provinces, but more acutely than…
Published in the Toronto Star on December 10, 2014
By: Colin Busby
Colin Busby is a senior policy analyst at the C.D. Howe Institute.
We are surrounded by innovations made by Canadians. We invented canola oil, alkaline batteries and snowmobiles. Such innovations are at the heart of our economy. But where in Canada are the innovators of today? New data shows that we need to rethink old stories of which parts of the Canadian economy are the most innovative. Inventors in Alberta and in the utilities and construction sector – areas that some see as producing little domestic value added – are outperforming researchers in many other parts of the economy in applying their work to the Canadian market.
Patents are a…
Published in The Hill Times on November 17, 2014
By Åke Blomqvist
Åke Blomqvist is an adjunct research professor at Carleton University and a health policy scholar at the C.D. Howe Institute.
With a 2015 federal election on the horizon, many political strategists are wondering if there is a way they can leverage Canadians’ concern for their health care system into more votes. But these strategists and their parties should be wary of the pitfalls when trying to score points with federal health policy initiatives. Their success depends heavily on getting the provinces on side, and our system of federal-provincial cooperation in managing health care…
Published in the Montreal Gazette on June 4, 2014
By Claude Forget
Claude Forget is a former Quebec health minister. His C.D. Howe Institute study The Case of the Vanishing Physicians: How to Improve Access to Care, can be found at www.cdhowe.org.
For years, Quebecers and Quebec doctors have documented poor access to health-care services in the province. This situation ought to change. Quebec must reform primary care and put in place stronger incentives for better access.
In 2012 and 2013, roughly 15 per cent of Quebec patients surveyed by the Commonwealth Fund reported not having a family doctor, compared with about…
