National Health Insurance in Ontario: The Effects of a Policy of Cost Control

National Health Insurance in Ontario: The Effects of a Policy of Cost Control by William S. Comanor examines the implications for the United States of Ontario's experience with national health insurance. Health care expenditures in Ontario, Canada's most populous province, have increased sharply since the adoption of national health insurance in 1969. To reduce costs, the Ontario government adopted a policy limiting the supply of physicians and of hospital beds. Examining the presumption underlying this policy, the author finds that the number of physician specialists has a much larger impact on the volume of physician and hospital services used than has the number of general practitioners.

The author contends that Ontario's adoption of a national insurance plan that removed all financial constraints on demand led inexorably to government control of both the extent and character of medical care-a model that should not be followed in the United States.