Mission, Method and Values

CHPI’s motto is “information and ideas for better healthcare”.

The Institute aims to fully inform decision-makers through evidence-based policy research and advocacy. Our research fills crucial evidence gaps by:

• Investigating issues that are overlooked by policy-makers.
• Testing the empirical validity of policy assumptions and rationale.
• Retrospective evaluation of policy outcomes.
• Predictive modeling of policy options.

CHPI analyzes health policy from macro perspectives that account for the impact on societal welfare, the healthcare system, or the interests of patients and taxpayers. Economic concepts like Pareto efficiency, inform our analytical methods.

The Institute promotes practical policy thinking to find the optimal balance between social responsibility, economic efficiency, and personal choice. Our theoretical and ethical framework is informed by empirical observations including:

• Healthcare spending is an investment in human capital, producing greater societal benefits than many alternative uses of scarce resources.
• Development and adoption of innovative technologies is vital to achieve efficient maximization of net health benefits for patients.
• Government has a fiduciary responsibility to patients and taxpayers and should make health policy decisions in their interests.
• People have a fundamental right to take actions necessary to protect and improve their own health. Policies that hinder or prohibit people from privately obtaining medical goods, services, and insurance are contrary to the principle of self-preservation.
• Public subsidization and regulation of healthcare is necessary to guarantee universal access to adequate medical care, and to certify the safety and effectiveness of medical products, but a public monopoly is not required to achieve these goals. The merits of public sector versus  private sector provision of medical goods, services and insurance; ownership or operation of hospitals or clinics; or funding research and development of medical technologies can be evaluated through empirical observation and scientific analysis according to objective outcome metrics.