Brett J. Skinner

President and Director of Health Policy and Insurance Policy Research, The Fraser Institute

Brett J. Skinner is President of the Fraser Institute as well as Director of Health Policy and Insurance Policy research. Dr. Skinner has a B.A. from the University of Windsor, an M.A. through joint studies between the University of Windsor and Wayne State University in Detroit (Michigan), and a Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario, where he has lectured in both the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Department of Political Science. He has also worked as a research consultant to the Insurance Bureau of Canada (Toronto). Since 2002, Dr. Skinner has authored or co-authored nearly 40 major original pieces of applied economics and public policy research. In 2003 he was a co-winner of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation’s Sir Antony Fisher Memorial Award for innovative projects in public policy. His research has been published through several think-tanks including the Fraser Institute, the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (Halifax) and the Pacific Research Institute (San Francisco). His work has also been published in several academic journals including Economic Affairs, Pharmacoeconomics and Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics. Dr. Skinner appears and is cited frequently as an expert in the Canadian, American, and global media. He has presented his research at conferences and events around the world, including twice testifying before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health in Ottawa, and twice briefing bi-partisan Congressional policy staff at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Latest Publications

• Value for Money from Health Insurance Systems in Canada and the OECD
• Canada's Drug Price Paradox, 2010
• Average Personal Affordability of Prescription Drug Spending in the United States and Canada, 2010 edition
• Access Delayed, Access Denied: Waiting for New Medicines in Canada 2010
• Paying More, Getting Less: 2009 Report

All Publications

Latest News Releases

• Expensive Canadian health insurance system fails to match most OECD countries in providing medical resources and services to patients
• Canadians continue to pay almost twice as much as Americans for generic prescription drugs
• Two Canadian provinces on pace to spend half of all revenue on health care by 2014; four others expected to hit 50 percent by 2034
• New book reveals serious problems with government health insurance in Canada; timely warning for Americans considering a ‘public option’
• Sustained by rationing, wait lists, and high taxes, the Canadian health insurance system is an example of what America should avoid

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Latest Articles & Commentaries

• Milton Friedman’s Ideas Alive and Well
• Waiting for New Medicines in Canada
• The Medical Bankruptcy Myth
• Proponents of Government-Run Health Insurance Choose to Disregard the Facts
• The problem with central planning

All Commentaries