Q:  Could you tell us a little bit about yourself, including your current areas of interest?
 
A: I am the president, CEO and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy at the Pacific Research Institute.  I became the head of PRI on October 1^st 1991.  Before assuming this position, I was the Assistant Director of the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, Canada. 

As an economist, my area of interest and specialization is health care policy.  I have been writing and commenting for decades on the dangers of a complete government takeover of health care in this country—an issue that the progressives such as Senator Bernie Sanders have as their goal for our system. 

In addition, I propose and advocate for positive reforms for America that would lead to affordable, accessible, quality care for all Americans.  This can be accomplished by bringing competition to health care including putting doctors and patients in charge of their health care rather than the federal or state government.  

In 2018, I received an honorary Ph.D from the Pepperdine School of Public Policy for my important work in health care reform.  In 2006, I became an American citizen and am married to Professor Charles Kesler.
 
Q: What do you like to do in your off time?
 
A: As a former Canadian junior competitive tennis player, I love the game and spend my weekends keeping my game up.  As well, I love gardening and cooking gourmet meals when I have some time available. 
 
Q: What is the best book you’ve read in the last year?
 
A: Mark Levin’s July 2021 book American Marxism (Simon & Schuster).  Mr. Levin explores the growth of Marxism in America over time and shows how it is the most important issue among the progressive movement.  He shows in very clear terms how this growing movement will destroy America if we don’t make the case for a society based on individual responsibility and free markets. 
 
Q:  Of the healthcare policy successes you have enjoyed, which are you the proudest?
 
A: I would say keeping single payer at bay since I came to the U.S. in fall 1991.  My efforts were critical in the defeat of Prop 186 in CA, the single-payer initiative, and “Hillary Care” at the national level in the 90s.  I worked non-stop on efforts against Obamacare and more recently on the latest state initiatives by Democratic legislators to bring single payer to CA.  I have won some very prestigious debates against single payer including “Intelligence Squared”, “The Soho Forum”, and others. 
 
Left wing publications such as The Jacobin and Mother Jones often quote me in negative terms for my successes battling against Medicare for All.  I consider these hits very significant as it shows the impact I am having in changing hearts and minds and educating the American people on the dangers of a government-run health care system.  In a recent speech, noted author and Fox News TV commentator Mark Levin, called me “a national treasure” for my great work on health care reform.  Nobel laureate in economics Milton Friedman wrote the foreword to my first book Miracle Cure: How to Solve America’s Health Care Crisis and Why Canada Isn’t the Answer (2004). 

My sixth book False Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All was published in 2021 by Encounter Books.  It sold extremely well and was a number one bestseller for health care policy books for several weeks on Amazon.com.
 
Q: What do you think is the most significant issue we should be paying to in healthcare today?
 
A:The growing movement to single payer health care, also known as “Medicare for All”.  It is being promoted non-stop by progressive politicians such as Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and House members Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA).   Many Democrats at the state and federal level are pushing stepping-stone approaches to single payer by promoting a “Public Option”, a government run health care plan that would compete against private insurers, and building on Obamacare so eventually everyone would be covered by the government.
 
Q:  What are you working on now?
 
A: My focus is to educate all Americans on the dangers of programs that will lead us down the path to a Canadian-style, single-payer model where government is the only provide of care that is deemed “medically necessary”.  Care is rationed and there are long waits for care—25.6 weeks in 2021 from seeing a primary care doctor to getting treatment by a specialist.  Today, I write a weekly health care column for Newsmax and bi-weekly columns for Forbes and the Washington Examiner.  My op-eds are also published in outlets such as Wall Street Journal, Cincinnati Enquirer, Detroit News, New Jersey Star-Ledger, Dallas Morning News, to name a few.  As well, I do radio and TV interviews on a regular basis, and travel across the country speaking to audiences through speeches and debates throughout the year.