Background: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is one of the greatest social health problems in many communities in the twenty-first century. Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) could decrease HIV infection among injection drug users (IDU). The main aim of this paper was to determine the cost-effectiveness of the governmental MMT program to prevent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) i...

This article provides an overview of current trends in health expenditures in 29 OECD countries and recent revisions of OECD health accounts. U.S. health expenditures are compared with those of other OECD countries. The interactions of cost-containment measures with changes in the public-private mix of financing and in the composition of health care spending are discussed.

OBJECTIVES To document the trends in expenditures on dental health care services and the number of dental health care professionals in Canada from 1990 to 1999. METHODS Information on dental and health expenditures, numbers of dentists, hygienists and dental therapists, and the population of Canada and the provinces were obtained from the Canadian Institute for Health Information; data on num...

OBJECTIVES To describe trends in expenditures on dental health care services, the number of dental health care professionals and self-reported dental visits and cost barriers to dental care in Canada from 2000 to 2010. METHODS Data on licensed dental professionals; total expenditures on dental care, both public and private; and mean per capita amount spent on dental care were obtained from th...

Rapid population aging is raising concerns about the sustainability of public pension systems in high-income countries. The first part of this study identifies the four factors that determine trends in public pension expenditures: population aging, pension benefit levels, the mean age at retirement, and the labor force participation rate. The second part presents projections to 2050 of the impa...

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of economic openness on the vertical structure of the public sector within a country. To tackle this issue we set up a simple theoretical model of fiscal federalism, where both central and local public spending enter the objective functions of both a central government and an aggregate local public sector, accommodating a wide range of behaviou...

In Canada, the delivery of dental care is left largely to private markets; public funding is limited to targeted groups of the population and substantial variation between provinces exists. In this article, the levels and sources of expenditures on dental care, the levels and distribution of service use associated with these expenditures and the oral health outcomes "produced" in Canada are con...