The Fraser Institute recently released two new health care studies. The first, on the drug approval process in Ca­nada, shows that Canadians wait an average of 2 years for access to new drugs due to delays in both the federal approval process and the provincial process of authorizing reimbursement. 

Data show that Health Canada took longer to approve new medicines than the European Medicines Agency in all 5 years studied, and longer than the US Food and Drug Administration in 6 of the last 7 years studied. The study can be viewed at www.fraserinstitute.org/researchnews/display.aspx?id=18196 [8].

The second study, on Canada’s health insurance system, provides data indicating that although Canadian health insurance ranks among the most expensive in the OECD, Canada is not providing patients with the same levels of access to medical services as other comparable countries. 
The study uses the most recent data available (from 2009) to compare the health care expenditures of 28 OECD countries in relation to 20 indicators of medical resource availability and output of medical services. 

Data show that Canada had the sixth-highest rate of health insurance expenditures, but ranked below the majority of OEDC countries on 15 out of the 20 indicators used, ranking especially low on the number of practising physicians per population (19th out of 23 countries). The study can be viewed at www.fraserinstitute.org/research-news/display.aspx?id=18231 [9].