A century ago, firms ran streetcars for profit, paying fees to government. Continue reading Let private enterprise build subways
Tag Archives: Consumer Policy Institute
Over-caffeinated press plays fast with cancer
Health Canada researchers made headlines yesterday, across Canada and around the world, on the news that heavy coffee consumption may increase the risk of bladder cancer in men. The news reports – “Study links coffee to bladder cancer” was how the Toronto Star and China’s Xinhua both played it – were unwarranted, even if accurate. The jolt to the story came more from an over-caffeinated press than from the study itself, or from the interview provided by the study’s lead researcher, Anne-Marie Ugnat. Continue reading Over-caffeinated press plays fast with cancer
Re: Millions have no family doctor
That 3.6 million Canadians do not have a family doctor is a national disgrace, one that could have been avoided if politicians and health authorities had been listening to the public.
Insurance for dummies
Lowering auto insurance rates doesn’t involve “rocket science,” Alberta Premier Ralph Klein scoffed last week. To prove his point, he vowed to sit his MLAs down together in the same room one day soon to lower rates for 80% of Alberta drivers. His ideal is one-size-fits-all insurance. “What we want to achieve is comparable levels of premium payments for the middle of the pack so to speak . . . you, me.”
Kangaroo court
Wednesday, Nov. 5: “We’ve been impressed by your recent columns on auto insurance in the Post,” the insurance industry’s public affairs rep tells me over the phone. “Would you be willing to go to Fredericton next week and offer your views at a luncheon?” Thus began my adventure into the zany workings of lawmaking in New Brunswick.
2 Fast 2 Cheap
Canada’s private automobile insurance companies gouge almost all their customers. But there are exceptions.
Americans love their car . . . insurance
U.S. auto insurance is not only fairer, it’s cheaper, thanks to free enterprise. Politicians and other advocates of state control should keep that in mind.
The phoney MSA debate
The debate over medical savings accounts (MSAs) – the proposal to have government give each Canadian an annual health allowance to cover routine health needs – has largely been fought on economic grounds. Continue reading The phoney MSA debate
Medical savings accounts would benefit all Canadians
Roy Romanow, Canada’s one-man health commission, believes that the poor need good health care and that any reform of Canada’s health care system must provide it to them.
Continue reading Medical savings accounts would benefit all Canadians
Pay-per-minute auto insurance
Pay-per-minute automobile insurance — a new approach that a major U.S. insurance company has tested in the Texas market — is a hit with consumers. On average, the hundreds of Houston-area drivers who signed up are saving 25%, and some — those who don’t drive much, or who are insuring a lightly driven second or third car — are saving up to 50% over what they had been paying for traditional automobile insurance.
Consumer Policy Institute 