Measuring the Efficiency of the Canadian Health Care System
Lakehead University, Department of Economics, Discussion Paper No. 15-05
33 Pages Posted: 22 Feb 2016 Last revised: 13 Jul 2018
Date Written: June 1, 2015
Abstract
The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of the Canadian health care system from a national and provincial perspective in terms of waiting time. A two-stage data envelopment analysis is applied to examine the quantitative and expenditure efficiency of the health care system with respect to wait times and the number of patients treated. This study is an evaluation of the recent health care policies focused on reducing the amount of time Canadians are waiting to gain access to health services and maximizing the number of patients treated. The results reveal that the Canadian health care system has been fairly efficient in its utilization of health care quantity inputs. There remains, however, room for improvement in achieving efficiency in health care expenditure especially in terms of wait time reduction. In particular, efficiency can be improved by reallocating input distributions in some provinces. Also, this study further reinforces the importance of establishing policies geared towards the evolving dynamics of its user-community.
Keywords: Canadian health care system, waiting time, efficiency, provincial analysis
JEL Classification: I12
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation