The health care system in Canada is much-touted in the international sphere, but often overlooked when it comes to an examination of its actual administration and regulation. Health Systems in Transition: Canada provides an objective description and analysis of the public, private, and mixed components that make up health care in Canada today. Published in co-operation with the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe on behalf of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Gregory P. Marchildon's study offers a statistical and visual description of the many facets of Canadian health care financing, administration, and service delivery.

This study's most distinctive feature is a comparative description and analysis. For international comparison, five other countries have been selected: The United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, and Sweden. Because public health care administration and delivery is highly decentralized in Canada, Marchildon also analyzes the important health status and health care features within Canada by province and territory, and describes in some detail the unique constitutional, jurisdictional, and financial features of the Canadian system.

Balancing careful assessment, summary, and illustration, Health Systems in Transition: Canada is a thorough and illuminating look at one of the nation's most complex institutions.

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 Marchildon's profile page