MODEST TO POOR RATING OF CANADA'S HEALTH CARE

Comparing the performance of different countries' health-care systems provides an opportunity for policy makers and the general public to determine how well Canada's health-care system is performing relative to its international peers. Overall, the data examined suggest that, although Canada's is among the most expensive universal-access health-care systems in the OECD, its performance is modest to poor.

This study uses a “value for money approach” to compare the cost and performance of 28 universal health-care systems in high-income countries. The level of health-care expenditure is measured using two indicators, while the performance of each country's health-care system is measured using 40 indicators, representing the four broad categories: [1] availability of resources; [2] use of resources; [3] access to resources; [4] quality and clinical performance.