Through Canadian and international perspectives, Bending the Cost Curve in Health Care explores the management of growing health costs in an extraordinarily complex arena. The book moves beyond previous debates, agreeing that while efficiencies and better value for money may yet be found, more fundamental reforms to the management and delivery of health services are essential prerequisites to bending the cost curve in the long run. While there is considerable controversy over direction and details of change, there also remains the challenge of getting agreement on the values or principles that would guide the reshaping of the policies, the structures, and the regulatory environment of health care in Canada.

Leading experts from around the world representing a range of disciplines and professional backgrounds come together to organize and define the problems faced by policy-makers. Case studies from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Nordic countries, and industrialized Asian
countries such as Taiwan offer useful reform experiences for provincial governments in Canada. Finally, common Canadian cost factors, such as pharmaceuticals and technology, and paying the health workforce, are explored.

This book is the first volume in The Johnson-Shoyama Series on Public Policy, published by the University of Toronto Press in association with the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, an interdisciplinary centre for research, teaching, and executive training with campuses at
the Universities of Regina and Saskatchewan.

Gregory P. Marchildon is a Canada Research Chair in Public Policy and Economic History at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Regina. He was executive director of the Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada (the Romanow Commission). His most recent books include Health Systems in Transition: Canada (2013) and Nunavut: A Health System Profile (2013).

Gregory P. Marchildon's profile page

Livio Di Matteo is Professor of Economics at Lakehead University. His articles have appeared in many academic international health journals, including the Journal of Health Economics, Health Policy, European Journal of Health Economics, and Health Economics, Policy and Law.

Livio Di Matteo's profile page