Colleen Flood of the University of Toronto law school has a working paper out on the impact of the Canadian Supreme Court’s ruling in Chaoulli v. Quebec. In that case the court basically said that if the government prohibits private health insurance, but then threatens people’s lives by making them wait for care in the state-run health care system, it is violating the people’s rights to life, liberty, and personal security.

Prof. Flood’s paper is titled, “Chaoulli’s Legacy for the Future of Canadian Health Care Policy.” From the abstract:

The decision was initially considered of limited importance by many given that technically it applied only to Quebec. In the six months since the decision was released, however, it has become clear that the legal impact of Chaoulli will be dwarfed by its normative impact on policy debates across the country. Chaoulli has brought Canadian Medicare to a fork in the road. At the time of writing, critical decisions are about to be taken across the country.

Flood’s paper is available from the Social Science Research Network here (subscription req’d).

Dr. Chaoulli — the chief litigant in the case — authored a paper for Cato on the ruling and its potential impact, available here.