Raisa Deber

Covering a wide range of issues, the 22 cases included in Case Studies in Canadian Health Policy and Management constitute an exceptional resource for bringing real-life policy questions into the classroom. Based on actual events, the cases were developed with input from students in the course, most of whom were mid-career professionals with strong field experience and were extensively tested in Raisa B. Deber’s graduate and undergraduate case studies courses at the University of Toronto. Each case features both a substantive health policy issue and key concepts and methods appropriate to examining public policy, public health, and health care management issues. In each case, the book provides a summary of the case and the related policy issues, a description of events, suggested questions for discussion, supporting information, and lists works cited and further reading. An accompanying volume of teaching notes helps guide how the case can be taught. The book also includes a substantial introductory chapter which provides a framework and summary of key policy concepts and indicates which of these can be used in which cases. Featuring updated and new cases, the third edition of this formative textbook is suitable for graduate and undergraduate classrooms across disciplines and fields.

Canada has been among the world leaders in recognizing the multiple factors that impact health. Focusing on Canada’s health care system, Raisa B. Deber provides brief descriptions of some key facts and concepts necessary to understand health care policy in Canada and place it in an international context. An accessible guide, Treating Health Care unpacks key concepts to provide informed discussions that help us understand and diagnose Canada’s health care system and to clarify which proposed changes are likely to improve it - and which are not. This book provides background information to clarify such concepts as: determinants of health; how health systems are organized and financed (including international comparisons); health economics; health ethics; and roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders, including government, providers, and patients. It then addresses some key issues, including equity, efficiency, access and wait times, quality improvement and patient safety, and coverage and payment models. Using analysis rather than advocacy, Deber provides a toolkit to help understand health care and health policy.

Almost Home is a rich and comprehensive study of the policy questions underlying the shift in medical care from hospitals to homes and communities, a change that is reshaping Canadian health care policy and politics. Using document analysis, and interviews with government officials and other key stakeholders in the policy community, the authors analyze the policy content and process of five different attempts to reform home and community care in Ontario between 1985 and 1996, as introduced by governments from three different political parties. As this study demonstrates, the ongoing shift from the Medicare 'mainstream' of physician and hospital care to the Medicare 'margins,' entails not only a shift in the site of care but an erosion of the post-war state's role in health care. While Medicare continues to resist political and ideological forces aimed at shrinking the state's role, cost constraints, demographic pressures and technological advancements are increasing pressure on home and community care. The authors have made a significant contribution to research on policy development and change. Their rigorously analytical approach fills a major gap in book-length literature on long-term health care in Canada.

Almost Home is a rich and comprehensive study of the policy questions underlying the shift in medical care from hospitals to homes and communities, a change that is reshaping Canadian health care policy and politics. Using document analysis, and interviews with government officials and other key stakeholders in the policy community, the authors analyze the policy content and process of five different attempts to reform home and community care in Ontario between 1985 and 1996, as introduced by governments from three different political parties. As this study demonstrates, the ongoing shift from the Medicare 'mainstream' of physician and hospital care to the Medicare 'margins,' entails not only a shift in the site of care but an erosion of the post-war state's role in health care. While Medicare continues to resist political and ideological forces aimed at shrinking the state's role, cost constraints, demographic pressures and technological advancements are increasing pressure on home and community care. The authors have made a significant contribution to research on policy development and change. Their rigorously analytical approach fills a major gap in book-length literature on long-term health care in Canada.