ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief description of the Canadian reforms, and examines the logic of the purchaser-provider split in the United Kingdom's internal market. The health care systems in the United Kingdom (UK) and Canada share important structural characteristics and values, including tax-based, universal, public insurance. During the 1990s, in both countries the health sector experienced deep restructuring that took the form of the internal market in the UK and a strong regionalisation of management in the Canadian provinces. The chapter analyses the similarities between both sets of reforms. It discusses the hospital sector, leaving aside general practice and private production. The chapter focuses on an 'ideal-type' analysis of the reforms. To build a more efficient and consumer-centred National Health Service, the Thatcher government tried to reorganise the system to emulate market mechanisms which were thought to allow an optimal allocation of goods.
